Following Rory McIlroy's comments yesterday about fans' boorish behaviour, here's a recent article I wrote for the Irish Examiner. It followed Justin Thomas's intervention to get a fan ejected at the Honda
Classic (22-25 February).
In the final round,
Justin Thomas hit his tee shot on the 16th hole only for a fan to shout ‘get in
the bunker’ as the ball was in the air.
“Who said that?” Thomas
asked. “Was that you? Enjoy your day, buddy, you’re gone.”
And so the fan was ejected.
Afterwards, Thomas said that as
he approached the tee box the fan yelled, “I hope you hit it in the water.”
This was then followed by the bunker taunt.
“I was like, OK, I’ve had enough,”
Thomas told reporters. “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.
“I don’t want to kick someone out
just to kick them out. It’s just so inappropriate. We’re out here trying to win
a tournament.”
Twitter went into overdrive calling
Thomas’s reaction excessive… many were vitriolic
