Does Rory McIlroy Have A Good Point On Limiting Booze At Tour Events?
Last week’s API winner Rory McIlroy is frustrated at the increasing unruly fan behavior PGA Tour events. The thoughtful Irishman has an idea to curtail the morons screaming “Mashed potatoes!” or “Get in the hole” after a tee shot on a par-5, or worse.
“There was one guy out there who kept yelling my wife’s name; I was going to go over and have a chat with him, but, yeah, I don’t know, I think it’s gotten a little much, to be honest,” McIlroy said. “I think that they need to limit the alcohol sales on the course, or they need to do something, because every week it seems like guys are complaining about it more.”
McIlroy played with Woods the first two rounds of the Genesis Open. As famous as Rory is, dealing with Tiger’s immense following is like comparing a weekly NFL game to the Super Bowl.
“I swear, playing in front of all that, he gives up half a shot a day on the field,” McIlroy said at the time. “Like, it’s two shots he has to give to the field because of all that goes on around (him). So whether that calms down the more he plays and it doesn’t become such a novelty that he’s back out playing again because it’s – it’s tiring.”
“I know that people want to come and enjoy themselves and whatever, and I’m all for that, but it’s, sometimes when the comments get personal and people get a little bit rowdy it can get a little much,” McIlroy said. “I don’t know, it used to be like you bring beers on to the course or buy beers, but not liquor. And now it seems like everyone’s walking around with a cocktail or whatever. So I don’t know whether it’s just go back to letting people walk around with beers in their hand, that’s fine, but, I don’t know.”
“A lot of tournaments see how successful Phoenix is and they want to try to replicate that, which is great, it’s great for the tournament, it’s great for us, but golf is different than a football game and there’s etiquette involved and you don’t want again like you don’t want people to be put off from bringing their kids when people are shouting stuff out. You want people to enjoy themselves.”
Of course, Rory found some good-natured irony when asked to take a shot of vodka in memory of Arnold Palmer after Sunday’s win.
After his post-round press conference, Rory McIlroy offered a toast to Arnold Palmer. Also joked: “Was I not the one who said no liquor at golf tournaments?” pic.twitter.com/4tonXZVJFq
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelESPN) March 18, 2018
One day, the Tour may have to mirror the strict policies at Augusta National. Behave poorly and get shown the exit. But Tour officials can’t even police slow play, so…
