The PGA Tour Threatening To Kick Fans Out Of Tournaments Who Call Bryson DeChambeau ‘Brooksie’ Just Made Things A Whole Lot Worse

pga tour kick out fans who call bryson dechambeau brooksy

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  • The PGA Tour is now laying down the law for fans who call Bryson DeChambeau ‘Brooksy.’
  • Tour commissioner Jay Monahan explained that fans may be removed from tournaments if they shout the name at DeChambeau.
  • Check out more golf coverage at BroBible here.

The Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka saga has continued to grow despite neither player actually making a comment about one another for weeks now. Golf fans – specifically DeChambeau haters – are the ones that have kept the flames alive between the two and now the fans themselves could be punished for simply trolling DeChambeau.

Fans in the gallery have been calling DeChambeau ‘Brooksie’ for months now, but more recently things have gotten out of hand, at least in the Tour’s eyes.

A female fan shouted ‘Brooksie’ at DeChambeau during his back-nine debacle in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which got under his skin enough that he chirped her back. Things hit an entirely different level last week, however, when a fan shouted ‘Great job Brooksie’ at DeChambeau just after he lost a playoff to Patrick Cantlay in the BMW Championship. DeChambeau didn’t let this one slide and reportedly shouted back ‘You know what? Get the f-ck out.’

Say ‘Brooksie’ And You May Get The Boot

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the ‘Brooksie’ situation and updating the code of conduct program during his Tuesday press conference ahead of the season final Tour Championship. While he said his comments weren’t about “one particular player” or “one particular incident,” it’s obvious who he’s talking about here. It’s also worth noting that he made these comments during his opening remarks, he wasn’t asked about DeChambeau, Koepka, or any other players until after making these statements on his own.

Well, I think we can all agree that we have seen issues as of late across the sports landscape where that pent-up demand plays out in an ugly way,” Monahan explained. “Golf is not immune from unfortunate and disruptive behavior, although I would say that we do have the very best fans in the world. This is about just a few bad actors. And for the record, this isn’t about any one particular player or one particular incident, but in some situations it’s apparent that we have gotten away from the very civility and respect that are hallmarks to our great game.”

“Fans who breach our code of conduct are subject to expulsion from the tournament and loss of their credential or ticket. Now, I would ask our fans, again, the very best fans in the world, to take a moment and think about what it means to be a golf fan and to enjoy a PGA TOUR tournament. We’re going to be leaders in this space. We’re going to show everyone how easy it is to enjoy yourself at an event while also respecting the athletes in the field of play and the fans around you, many of whom are families with young kids who have a chance to be lifetime fans of the game themselves,” he continued.

The first question Monahan was asked after his remarks was whether or not a fan calling DeChambeau ‘Brooksie’ would classify as harassing behavior. Monahan’s answer? Yes.

“Yes, and the reason I say yes is, you know, the barometer that we are all using is the word “respect,” and to me, when you hear “Brooksie” yelled or you hear any expression yelled, the question is, is that respectful or disrespectful? That has been going on for an extended period of time. To me, at this point, it’s disrespectful, and that’s kind of behavior that we’re not going to tolerate going forward,” Monahan explained.

Why The PGA Tour Threatening To Kick Out Fans Makes Things Even Worse

First and foremost, this is a slippery slope. If the PGA Tour is going to start kicking out fans who call a player by another player’s name – in other words, nothing vulgar or profane – then where might that end? Fans, especially those who have been drinking all day, are still going to say dumb things, but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Instead of calling DeChambeau ‘Brooksie’ they’ll start calling him ‘BK’ or maybe get clever and start doing the Florida State war chant after he hits a shot. Koepka went to Florida State, so this would be a pretty solid troll.

There’s no denying that the PGA Tour is in a tough spot here. It’s 2021, the Tour knows that it has to get out ahead of things when it comes to ‘bullying’ and protect its players at all costs, especially when said player is one of the best in the world. Having said that, it also has to respect the fan and not irritate them even more by telling them what they can and cannot say at a tournament they paid a hefty price to be at.

Maybe  Monahan’s remarks were completely his idea or perhaps someone in DeChambeau’s camp got in his ear. If DeChambeau didn’t ask for this, I’d imagine he’s pretty upset about it. He already had the biggest of targets on his back, now the heckling is going to take on an entirely different level. For all he’s heard over the years, DeChambeau actually has some pretty thick skin, but that’ll be put to the test at an unprecedented rate from here on out. Then again, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to learn that DeChambeau and his team were the ones that asked for Monahan to address things.

Nevertheless, this new rule isn’t going to make the situation go away, not for the Tour or for DeChambeau, all this did was elevate it. Now we could see fans removed from golf tournaments for shouting a name, plus it also opens up the opportunity for DeChambeau to point out a fan in the stands and kick them out, which aren’t the optics he wants.