Golf fans label Jordan Spieth a hypocrite after recent comments about the state of golf
Jordan Spieth gave his take on the increasing rowdiness of PGA Tour crowds, and it’s raised some questions about his own actions in recent years.
After the US Open, where the New York crowd actively rooted against Wyndham Clark during his final round, Spieth was asked about this trend. Golf crowd have grown increasingly partisan in recent years, leading to some uncomfortable moments this season especially.
Spieth blamed a lot of this on the rise of sports betting in golf, saying before the John Deere Classic: “I think the one thing that I’ll point out is I do think that betting in golf is something that’s going to have to be tackled here soon.
“Because I don’t know how much of, say, the Wyndham scenario 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.”
On the surface this looks like an intelligent point, but these comments have landed Spieth in hot water with golf fans.
Jordan Spieth labelled hypocrite by golf fans
While Spieth’s take on golf fans could well be true, they do hold a little less significance when you take a quick look at his social media channels. Ironically, the last three posts on Spieth’s X page are promotions for FanDuel, a sports betting company.
Golf fans were quick to point out the hypocrisy of this, with one fan posting: “Jordan Spieth is personally sponsored by Fanduel. Look at his past few tweets. All Fanduel ads. Spare me with this.”
This was the consensus among the majority of fans online, with another person adding, “One of the least self-aware statements of all time from a guy who is sponsored by FanDuel. The people watching (many because they have bets) are the people paying him tens of millions of dollars to not even contend in tournaments. Embarrassing.”
Other fans just flatly disagreed with Spieth’s take, saying it’s not sports betting that causing this fan behaviour. One fan said, “This is the dumbest thing in the world for Jordan Spieth to say!
“Wyndham Clark was booed not because of betting that I can assure you and by the way weren’t you an ambassador and partner of a certain company called FanDuel at one time Jordan?! Yes you were so zip it!”
One fan added, “Nope. It’s cell phones and social media. Influencer culture. Far worse IMHO.”
One fan pointed out that compared to other sports, golfers have it easy with fans. This is just an example of other sporting cultures bleeding into golf: “Disagree with Spieth here. Golfers don’t know how lucky they have it.
“At most they’ll have 1 or 2 people shout whilst they play. In every other sport tens of thousands shout at the players. Imagine someone missing a penalty & blaming it on someone shouting whilst they took it!”
And some fans pointed out that golf’s increase in popularity in recent years can be partly credited to sports betting, with one posting: “Golf’s popularity and weekly purses are at an all-time high right now.
“Not because of Spieth’s current form, but because of the influx of interest from sports betting and adjacent avenues of attention. Fans also need to not be jackasses, both can be true.”
But no matter what you think about Spieth’s point on golf betting, we can all agree that he is the wrong messenger.
