Scottie Scheffler had little reason to feel uncomfortable on the 14th tee. Three up through 13 holes, the world No. 1 had kept Nico Echavarria at arm’s length all afternoon. For Echavarria, things were far less comfortable. The Presidents Cup rookie was three holes down with five left to play against the world’s No. 1.

Then came the 14th. Echavarria stepped onto the tee knowing he needed to start clawing his way back into the match. Scheffler, meanwhile, had the luxury of watching his opponent make the first move. Yet within minutes, that dynamic had flipped. The American would walk across the tee box to address something in the gallery, and later make an unusual concession that kept Echavarria from having to finish out a difficult hole. But Kevin Kisner, after watching the moment back three times, isn’t convinced the shout had as much of an effect as it appeared.

“I didn’t think it was that apparent,” Kisner said about the individual’s interruption. “We replayed it three times … He yelled whatever he yelled. But it wasn’t like the guy was standing 10 feet from him when he was on his downswing. For him to hit a 155 mph ball speed with a driver. It looked like he took a rig’s divot with it when he hit it.”

Visibly annoyed, Scheffler walked across the tee box and called out the heckler, declaring, “There’s no place for that!” He later said he was “very frustrated,” arguing that players should have roughly 30 seconds to a minute of quiet when they are over the ball or preparing to hit. Echavarria recovered poorly from the rough and eventually faced a putt of roughly 32 feet for par from off the back of the green. Rather than make his opponent attempt it, Scheffler told Echavarria to pick it up, halving the hole.

The World No. 1 then missed his own birdie try, and the hole was halved. He went on to close out a 2&1 victory. The concession also meant Scheffler gave up a chance to go four up, although he remained three ahead after the hole.

Echavarria later made clear that the moment was not an isolated one from his perspective. “It didn’t happen just once,” he said, adding that it was a “tough environment” and that it was unfortunate the crowd could affect performance. Yet he also singled out Scheffler’s response, saying, “We have the No. 1 player in the world who is a class act,” after the American conceded the putt.

But, the fan’s shout came during Echavarria’s backswing, but Kisner noted that the spectator was not standing close to the golfer during the downswing. More importantly, he pointed to the quality of the strike: Echavarria generated around 155 mph of ball speed with his driver and took a large divot.

That does not prove the shout had no effect. A player can be distracted and still make solid contact. But it explains why Kisner stopped short of viewing the shot as an obvious case of a swing being ruined by a spectator. His point was about the degree of disruption, not an endorsement of yelling during another player’s swing.

There is also a distinction between what happens to the shot and what can happen to the spectator. A disruption from the gallery does not automatically give a player a do-over. At the same time, the PGA Tour’s spectator rules allow officials to take action against fans whose behavior disrupts competition. The Tour’s Fan Code of Conduct addresses spectator behavior separately from the Rules of Golf. There has been no clear public confirmation of whether the fan involved at Medinah was removed or otherwise penalized.

As for Scheffler’s reaction, there’s also some history behind it. At the 2019 Houston Open, when Scheffler was still a rookie, a spectator shouted during his swing on the par-3 ninth. Scheffler appeared to lose his balance, sending the ball into a greenside bunker, before turning toward the fan.

“Are you kidding me?” he shouted. “You can’t keep your mouth quiet for five minutes, man? Right in the middle of my swing.”

That incident is different from what happened at Medinah, but it did carry the same undertones.

A more personal episode came at the 2024 Presidents Cup in Montreal. As Scheffler and his playing partner Russell Henley approached the 16th hole during a foursomes match, a spectator directed vulgar remarks at Scheffler and his wife, Meredith. Scheffler’s father, Scott, confronted the fan, and caddie Ted Scott became involved before police intervened. Security later removed the spectator from the grounds. The exact words exchanged were never publicly established.

But the Medinah incident was different again. There was no personal remark aimed at Scheffler, and the fan was cheering for him. The problem, as Scheffler saw it, was the timing: the shout came while Echavarria was making his swing.

That distinction is also reflected in the response from International captain Geoff Ogilvy. While praising the energy of the Chicago crowd, Ogilvy said fans should be able to cheer for their team but “shouldn’t be yelling in swings.”

And Echavarria did get another chance to answer the crowd. Two holes after the incident, he holed a remarkable 64-foot birdie from the rough on the par-3 16th and then turned toward the American gallery and shushed it. The birdie cut Scheffler’s lead to two, briefly giving the rookie another opening before Scheffler closed out the match on the 17th.

Scheffler’s victory was one of seven American singles wins on Sunday as Team USA erased a 10½-7½ deficit to beat the International Team 17-13. Jacob Bridgeman supplied the decisive point by beating Min Woo Lee 1-up, so Scheffler’s match was an important part of the comeback but did not clinch the Presidents Cup itself.

That leaves Kisner’s criticism in a narrower place. He isn’t arguing that fans should be free to shout through swings. He is questioning whether this particular shout had the effect Scheffler believed it did. And that distinction matters when the entire controversy rests on what happened in those few seconds on the 14th tee.