Bryson DeCheambeau was not happy with the way fans heckled him last week over his ongoing rivalry with Brooks Koepka, and the PGA Tour is taking steps to prevent it from happening in the future.
Several fans who attended the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Gold Club in Maryland could be heard yelling “Brooksie!” at DeChambeau throughout the tournament. After DeChambeau lost to Patrick Cantlay in a 6-hole playoff, he had a heated exchange with one such fan that nearly turned ugly.
On Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said yelling “Brooksie!” at DeChambeau will now be considered harassing or disrespectful fan behavior and could result in an ejection.
Yelling or saying, "Brooksie" to Bryson DeChambeau will now be considered disrespectful from now on can result in expulsion from a tournament. This directly from Commissioner Jay Monahan. It's become an issue of being disrespectful to the players and the game.
— Michael Collins (@ESPNCaddie) August 31, 2021
Monahan added that it has been a “long season” with dealing with instances of inappropriate fan behavior. He said the PGA Tour began working on an official fan code of conduct last season.
The DeChambeau-Koepka rivalry has been good for golf, and DeChambeau has certainly done everything he can to keep it going. It’s baffling that yelling another golfer’s name at a Tour player could be considered such a serious offense, but here we are.
Fans will almost certainly find other ways to heckle DeChambeau. He’s the most polarizing golfer on the PGA Tour, and we were reminded of why with the awkward exchange he had with Cantlay on Sunday (video here). He obviously can’t handle everything that goes along with the persona he has created for himself.
