Sports betting continues to grow in golf, but its impact on the sport and its players has also drawn growing criticism. That tension was on full display during the Biltmore Championship at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove in Arden, where Scratch’s Claire Rogers revealed that a player was targeted by a fan after struggling during the event.
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“A message a PGA Tour player received on Instagram after his round today,” Rogers wrote on X. “This behavior is insane.”
She also attached a screenshot of the message, which read, “You are one garbage c**t, how [do] you double bogey from 3ft hahahaha re***d.”
It remains unclear which player received the message. However, such behavior from fans is nothing new. In July, Matt Fitzpatrick said sports betting is increasingly contributing to abuse directed at professional golfers, arguing that “every golfer that’s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone that is related to gambling.”
He pointed to social media, where a player struggling in a tournament can quickly find their name followed by “abuse after abuse after abuse.” Fitzpatrick believes the issue is concerning in golf because bettors could potentially try to influence outcomes, noting that “it would be very easy to influence a bet” by shouting during a player’s backswing or putting stroke.
While he acknowledged that such incidents would be difficult to monitor, he stressed that “it is definitely an issue.” Fitzpatrick was speaking from personal experience, having been subjected to loud boos when he lost to Cameron Young at the Players Championship in March. He faced a similar issue during last September’s Ryder Cup, where he represented Europe at Bethpage Black.
Rather than directly addressing the broader betting issue, the R&A introduced ‘The Open Commitment’ ahead of the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, a new fan code of conduct aimed at curbing rowdy and abusive behavior. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour and ESPN dramatically expanded their betting-focused streaming coverage in 2026.
According to Sports Business Journal, the Tour tested a dedicated betting “betcast” on the ESPN app across six tournaments last year, with roughly two hours of coverage each day. In 2026, that will expand from roughly 50 hours to nearly 400 hours, with eight hours of betting-focused coverage each day across 12 events.
Meanwhile, major sportsbooks offering golf betting in the U.S. include BetMGM, betPARX, bet365, FanDuel, Fanatics Sportsbook, and DraftKings. And the PGA Tour is partnered with all of them. Naturally, when fans learned about the message sent to the PGA Tour pro competing at the Biltmore Championship, they were far from happy.
One fan quickly blamed the messages on sports betting. “Claire. Nothing excuses this kind of behaviour, but the tour (along with seemingly every other sport) has run full speed off the edge of the gambling cliff with reckless abandon. This was inevitable the moment they started putting gambling odds on leaderboards 🤮,” the fan commented.
“This is what gambling does to people,” wrote another.
Someone else blamed the PGA Tour. “Well, the PGA went all in on gambling. This is the insanity you will get,” the fan wrote.
Meanwhile, the next user directed their anger toward the individual who sent the text. “What is wrong with people? I just don’t understand people going out of their way to be this way. I hate it here,” commented the user.
Another user was amused by the foolishness of the individual who sent the text. “My favorite is how they end up sending it under their real name half the time. As if they cannot be found and called out for being a garbage person…,” the user commented.
Clearly, abuse toward players has increasingly been linked to sports betting. Despite that, however, the chances of betting being removed from the sport remain minuscule.