Rowdy Long Island golf fans criticized after U.S. Open at Shinnecock

Long Island’s less-than-proud tradition of sports heckling reached new ground this week as a prominent golf commentator called the region’s fans "a stain on the game of golf."

Speaking on Golf Channel’s "Golf Today" show, commentator Eamon Lynch specified, lest anyone think he was talking about fans from New York City or its northern suburbs: "It’s what we see every single time we go to Long Island, and this isn’t a New York problem. ... It happens on Long Island every single time." Lynch, who could not be reached Tuesday for comment, also told a fellow commentator the 2033 PGA Championship slated for Bethpage Black should be held elsewhere, because "these people do not deserve a major championship."

Meant with malice

The heckling in question took place over many holes and several days during the U.S. Open at the normally staid Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, where fans loudly encouraged eventual champion Wyndham Clark to "Get in the bunker!" and "Get in the fescue!" Also, "Don’t choke, Wyndham!"

None of this was meant kindly: A 2025 Golf Digest article described fescue as "the long wispy grass that grabs your club and forces you to thoroughly check for ticks." The fan who told Wyndham not to choke got ejected from the venue.

Some of these fans may have backed Scottie Scheffler, who was chasing a career Grand Slam; some may have shunned Clark for his enraged demolition of a locker at Oakmont Country Club while missing the cut at last year’s Open.

Lynch, on the Golf Channel, described Long Island fans as a "particularly hardcore bunch," then seemed to suggest the culprits were a presumably smaller subset of "drunk crypto bros who buy a ticket with daddy’s credit card and they’ve gone through life without ever being slapped for something they’ve said."

In an email to Newsday, a PGA of America spokesperson wrote that the organization "remains committed to hosting the 2033 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. ... Fans who cross the line will be removed from the property — swiftly and without hesitation."

The United States Golf Association, which runs the Open, did not respond to a request for comment.

A history of heckling

Even before last year’s Ryder Cup, when fans at Bethpage Black heaped abuse on the victorious European team, shouting at Rory McIlroy as he lined up to swing and putt and hitting his wife with a cup of beer, Long Islanders have heckled.

During the 2009 U.S. Open, also played at Bethpage, Newsday reported that dozens of beer-sodden fans taunted Tiger Woods as he prepared to start his third round in the rain: "We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men!" one fan yelled. "Put that umbrella down!" The taunts were mixed with cheers from the majority of the crowd, but at the same event, fans greeted golfer Fred Funk by shouting his last name as an obscenity. They also shouted “This Bud's for you!" and "You’re fat!" at other players.

It’s not just golf. In 2012, Newsday reported that fans taunted a Little League pitcher from Levittown by shouting "You can’t pitch! You can’t pitch!" The pitcher, who was deaf, responded by turning off his hearing aids. In 2017, the father of a girl who played baseball for Merrick Avenue Middle School and hoped to eventually make the high school varsity team told Newsday that fans sometimes shouted at her to "go back to softball."

In an interview, Kelley Brooke, the LPGA touring pro and coach whose management company oversees multiple courses on Long Island, called the Open brouhaha — heckling to hand-wringing — "just ridiculous."

For starters, Brooke said, "It’s foolish to say [the hecklers] were Long Islanders — people from all over the world come to the U.S. Open."

Brooke said heckling in golf had less to do with Long Island norms than with social media, which gives hecklers a shot at virality, and the spread of stadium or grandstand-style seating.

"You’re sitting in hot stands with thousands of people drinking beer literally all day long," she said. "That’s not a good recipe for politeness and chivalry."

She also mentioned the Howard Stern Show, whose fans have for decades shouted "Babba Booey" at golf tournaments and other occasions as pranks.

Brooke said she was hopeful that the removal of the fan from this year’s U.S. Open would encourage tournament organizers to be more strict about policing heckling. Behavior might also improve, she said, if more people learned to play.

When golf coaches teach the sport to young people, "sportsmanship comes first and foremost. We shake hands. We congratulate opponents."

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.