Golf has cultivated a reputation for years as a sport unlike most, where cheering had its place, and that place was very rare. Silence was appreciated more often than not.
In 1996, Adam Sandler, playing off the reputation, created “Happy Gilmore,” the antithesis of the pro golfer. Sandler’s Gilmore cultivated a brigade of fans every bit as rowdy as Gilmore himself. That fictional depiction and the laughs that ensued took place 22 years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the prohibition of sports gambling.
These days, pro golf is tethered to sports betting, for better or worse. And as a result, a little of Happy Gilmore and his fans have followed the pros. At the recent U.S. Open in Pinehurst, N.C., boisterous fans cheered Bryson DeChambeau, drawing a grin from the golfer.
But on the 9th tee during the Saturday round, the Jeering Fan character from “Happy Gilmore” seemed to materialize: “Hey, Bryson! I’ve got a hundred bucks on you to shoot over 70.5 today!”
Note the inclusion of the wager.
The jeering heckler, Lee Woody, held a pair of White Claws in his hands. He did not garner a positive reaction from DeChambeau, especially when he missed the green on a par 3.
“There’s a line, and I dip my toes in there a little bit,” Woody said of his taunting, per the Washington Post. He also bet $100 through FanDuel that Hideki Matsuyama would shoot under 71.5 that day. “He’s very calm and composed,” Woody said of Matsuyama. “He doesn’t get rattled by anyone who chirps.”
Turned out, DeChambeau didn’t let Woody distract him as he shot a 67, helping him take his second U.S. Open championship.
It should be duly noted that this marked the first U.S. Open to take place in a state with legalized betting. Onlookers, armed with mobile phones, bet on every conceivable option, and had no inhibition when it came to catcalls from the gallery. One fellow offered to bet Phil Mickelson, an admitted gambling addict, how he would do on No. 17.
“We hear everything,” DeChambeau told Post. “Whether betting is a good thing or not is up for debate. I personally think if it can help grow the game and bring in a bigger audience, I’m all about it.”
Golf gambling and daily fantasy contests have both taken off. PrizePicks, a daily fantasy operator, took in more than twice as much money in entry fees on the first round of the Open than in 2022. Betting during play made up 45 percent of the handle for DraftKings. Those attending live events have the opportunity to sneak in a bet before sportsbooks can adjust the odds, giving them an edge. They can also get inside a players head, something watching from a retail sportsbook is not an option.
“In many other sports you would never hear that because you’re not that close and it’s too loud,” golfer Collin Morikawa told the Post.
Max Homa argues that most gamblers seem well intentioned with their comments. Then again, at last year’s BMW Championship, a gambler screamed “pull it!” while Homa was mid-putt. Still none of that compares to the venom people send him on social media. Or the steps they take to figure out his Venmo account and ask for money to repay what Homa cost them by not playing up to a bettor’s expectations. In that, golf doesn’t differ from baseball or basketball.
The more thoughtful bettors analyze each element of a golfer’s game and how that plays on the particular course on a particular day. But operators have more often kept a step ahead of gamblers thanks to detailed data. Yet the smart gambler can make a mental picture of pre-game putting, chips to the green, how rain impacts this golfer’s play, and so on. In a sense it mirrors what horse aficionados do when analyzing the tendencies on various turfs in those long minutes between races.
Another wrinkle in today’s game is how quickly sportsbooks react to betting patterns and limit the amount bet or change the odds.
Sam Cooney, the golf oddsmaker at Circa Sports, said operators not only limit action from live betting, but will add a 10 percent edge, maybe more, in something that should be no more than 5 percent.
Despite the ups and downs, ins and outs, the number of reported situations of a gambler seeking to influence a particular shot have been rare. And if we learned something from “Happy Gilmore,” it’s that he bested Shooter McGavin despite Jeering Fan’s attempts otherwise.
