Robert MacIntyre Heckled By Bettor During Second Round at BMW PGA Championship

Distractions from fans who have money on the outcome continue to pop up in pro golf. Friday at Wentworth was the latest incident.

Alex Miceli | Sep 15, 2023

Robert MacIntyre Heckled By Bettor During Second Round at BMW PGA Championship /

SURREY, England — The marriage of gambling and professional golf has been relatively cohesive, but betting partisanship within the galleries continues to rear its ugly head.

In Friday’s second round of the BMW PGA Championship, Robert MacIntyre was approached on the course by a bettor, who had bet that both Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose, his playing competitors, would finish ahead of the man from Oban, Scotland.

“He told me the amount he had riding on it,” MacIntyre said.

“I actually talked about that to someone a few weeks ago, it might even have been Jon [Rahm] about the heckling on the PGA Tour.”

MacIntyre was so concerned that the individual might do something untoward that he told his caddie Greg Milne to be alert, as the fan could say or do almost anything.

The DP World Tour did not respond to SI's request for comment on the incident.

A few weeks ago, Max Homa dealt with an unruly fan in the third round of the BMW Championship. The fan cheered and yelled when Chris Kirk, who was playing with Homa, missed his putt short.

Then the focus turned to Homa.

“One of them had $3 for me to make mine, and I got to the back of my back stroke, and he yelled, "pull it" pretty loud, and I made it right in the middle, and then I just started yelling at him, and then Joe yelled at him,” Homa said. “I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing I'm worried about. He didn't care that — I don't know what he had to lose. He got kicked out probably, and we were the last group.”

After his round Homa expressed concern about what these types of people can do and how they could eventually affect the outcome.

“It's just always something that's on your mind. It's on us to stay focused or whatever, but it's just annoying when it happens,” Homa said. “It just sucks when it's incredibly intentional.”

In Friday's MacIntyre saga, the bettor lost as the McIntyre shot 69 while Fitzpatrick recorded a 72 and Rose 71.

Published Sep 15, 2023

ALEX MICELI

Alex Miceli, a journalist and radio/TV personality who has been involved in golf for 26 years, was the founder of Morning Read and eventually sold it to Buffalo Groupe. He continues to contribute writing, podcasts and videos to SI.com. In 1993, Miceli founded Golf.com, which he sold in 1999 to Quokka Sports. One year later, he founded Golf Press Association, an independent golf news service that provides golf content to news agencies, newspapers, magazines and websites. He served as the GPA’s publisher and chief executive officer. Since launching GPA, Miceli has written for numerous newspapers, magazines and websites. He started GolfWire in 2000, selling it nine years later to Turnstile Publishing Co.