As legalized sports gambling rises in popularity in the U.S., and its negative impacts ripple through grandstands across the country, golf has not been left untouched. While players in other sports have been caught betting on and influencing games, the fans are the problem in golf.
And the problems extend from on the course to off it, as Matt Fitzpatrick explained in his 2026 Open Championship press conference at Royal Birkdale.
The former U.S. Open champ laid out two distinct ways sports gambling is becoming a “problem” in golf: fan abuse toward players and hecklers trying to influence play.
Here’s what you need to know.
Matt Fitzpatrick on impact of golf betting on fans: ‘It’s definitely becoming a problem’
Fitzpatrick is having a season to remember in 2026. After years of struggles following his breakthrough 2022 U.S. Open victory, the 31-year-old English pro has vaulted to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking this year thanks to three victories and two runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour.
This week, he’s hoping to capture his second major title and first Open win in his home country. But on Monday, he revealed some concern that golf spectators may try to influence play, if not this week, then at future pro golf events.
“For me, it’s definitely becoming a problem,” Fitzpatrick said when asked about sports gambling in golf during his presser at Royal Birkdale.
He went on to specifically call out how “easy” it would be for golf fans to impact play over a bet by heckling pros on the course or shouting during their swings.
“The issue is, particularly in golf, it would be very easy to influence a bet, whether it’s you’re shouting on someone’s backswing, shouting on a putting stroke. It’s really easy,” Fitzpatrick explained. “Obviously that is really hard to monitor, but it is definitely an issue.”
Fitzpatrick’s concern about golf gambling impacting tournaments is not a hypothetical issue. It may have already been a problem at one of this year’s majors.
In the final round of the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, Wyndham Clark was heckled relentlessly on his way to victory, with fans on site audibly rooting against him.
While the spectators’ behavior may have been in response to Clark’s own bad behavior, Jordan Spieth had a different take. At the John Deere Classic, Spieth suggested fans betting against Clark was the inspiration for the abuse they hurled at him.
“I don’t know how much of, say, the Wyndham [Clark] scenario [at the 2026 U.S. Open] was the fact that it was enticing to bet the field verse Wyndham on Sunday in a legalized betting state, and you could have had people out there that are essentially, you know, have $100 to $10,000, depending on who it is, on the field versus somebody else,” Spieth said. “In golf it’s tricky because you could actually impact the outcome if you wanted to. It may not last very long, but you could impact a shot if you wanted to. I don’t know of another sport that you could impact as a fan like you can golf. So I don’t know how much that’s having to do with it, if it’s different than it used to be.”
Just in the past year, Fitzpatrick has been the subject of multiple high-profile incidents of fan abuse at tournaments.
Most infamously, Fitzpatrick was on the European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black, and the harassment he and his teammates faced during their winning campaign there will long be remembered.
Lingering Ryder Cup hostility may have been to blame for what Fitzpatrick experienced at the Players Championship and RBC Heritage this year, when fans rooted against him as he competed with American Ryder Cup stars Cameron Young and Scottie Scheffler.
But on Monday, Fitzpatrick spoke about a different type of fan abuse roiling pro sports at large right now: fans harassing athletes on social media over lost bets.
“You just look at all the messages people get — footballers, tennis players, you name it, everyone’s getting messages of, oh, you missed that penalty; you cost me this. Oh, you didn’t make a birdie; cost me this,” Fitzpatrick said.
He then claimed that all pro golfers have received negative fan messages over gambling at some point in their careers, and we “could see it this week” at the Open Championship.
“I’ve had my fair share. I would say every golfer that’s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone that is related to gambling. I mean, you could see it this week,” Fitzpatrick argued. “You go and type in a player’s name who maybe isn’t playing well, maybe someone who’s favored to play well, you type the name into Twitter and you’ll just see their name followed by abuse after abuse after abuse.”
While Fitzpatrick admitted that he has a small bet on England to win the World Cup, he declared it was simply tradition he had with a good friend, and he doesn’t “condone gambling in the slightest.” Despite his bet, he assured reporters he won’t harass English star Harry Kane if his team loses.
“It’s difficult because I’ve had 20 quid on England to win the World Cup, but at the same time, if it doesn’t come in, I’m not going to send a message to Harry Kane and be like, why did you play rubbish? There’s obviously individuals that have that problem,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t know, obviously I don’t condone gambling in the slightest. It doesn’t — it’s not really for me. It’s a thing that me and my mate do every World Cup and Euros, that’s it.”
Should England beat Argentina and make the World Cup final on Sunday, it’s safe to say Fitzpatrick will be more focused on the Claret Jug (and the $3.2 million winner’s share that goes along with it) than his World Cup bet.
