Justin Thomas Has Fan Ejected For Good Reason
/It amazes me that more and more people attend a golf tournament to get in a few taunts, lame comments or mashed potato screams, but as we've seen the last few weeks the stupidity has taken on an edge that even tolerant players are sick of.
There is a key distinction here: the offending comment came on the way to the tee, not post tee shot as some outlets reported in suggesting Thomas was soft.
Ryan Lavner has Thomas's explanation for GolfChannel.com, and anyone who knows golf will appreciate why he was annoyed. It's a problem that if not stopped, will spiral out of control into golfers becoming subject to regular heckling.
While walking up to the 16th tee, tied for the lead, Thomas heard a fan yell in his direction: “I hope you hit it in the water!”
Thomas looked back at the spectator but didn’t say anything.
After Thomas ripped a long iron into the fairway, the same fan began shouting for the shot to get into the bunker.
“I was like, OK, I’ve had enough,” Thomas said afterward. “I just turned around and asked who it was, and he didn’t want to say anything, now that I had actually acknowledged him. So he got to leave a couple holes early.
The offending moment, but again, without the pre-tee shot comment:
Thomas went on to win his 7th title in 31 starts, and as Brian Wacker writes for GolfDigest.com, concerns about a post-Player of the Year slump seem unnecessary.
Full round highlights from the 2018 Honda Classic where Thomas had to apologize after the round for an F-bomb.