Jordan Spieth stood at a podium in Illinois this week and did something you don’t see every day from a PGA Tour star. He basically told everyone that the rise of legal sports betting has created a mess the sport needs to clean up. Quickly.
The three-time major winner was at the John Deere Classic in Silvis, which kicks off Thursday. He was talking about fan behavior on the course, and he didn’t sugarcoat it.
“I do think that betting in golf needs to be tackled here soon,” Spieth said. He went on to explain a specific fear that sets golf apart from other sports. In a football stadium or a basketball arena, a fan yelling at a player is mostly just noise. In golf, a spectator can physically interfere with a shot. They can yell during a backswing. They can move or make noise in ways that actually affect the outcome.
Spieth referenced the 2023 Wyndham Championship as an example, where the setup allegedly made it easy for bettors to root against a single player. “You could have had people out there who are, essentially, you know, have $100 to $10,000, depending on who it is, on the field versus someone else,” he said. “In golf, it is tricky because you can actually impact the outcome if you want to… I don’t know another sport where you can impact as a fan, like you can in golf.”
That’s the real issue. A drunk guy with a bad beat on DraftKings can theoretically ruin a guy’s tournament. And unlike the NBA or NFL, golf galleries are often inches from the action with no glass or security wall in between.
Spieth tees off Thursday at 8:35 a.m. ET alongside Ben Griffin and Jackson Koivun. He’s not the only big name around this week, though most of the Tour’s heavy hitters — Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns — are sitting this one out to prep for the Genesis Scottish Open next week.
Scheffler leads the FedEx Cup standings by a healthy margin over Matt Fitzpatrick. Cameron Young, who is playing at the John Deere, sits in third and could make things interesting if he picks up a win.
But the real conversation right now isn’t about the leaderboard. It’s about whether the Tour can do anything to keep the betting boom from turning golf events into hostile environments for the players. Spieth clearly thinks it’s time to figure that out before something worse happens.
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