Player Outbursts During 2025 Season Is Sparking Backlash

For the 2025 season, there has been a concerning, recurring issue. The sport has always prided itself as a gentleman’s sport, and the players are held to a higher standard of behavior.  That didn’t stop some players from suffering from attitude issues in three major leagues, from the start of the year up to now.  There are even fans and commentators out there calling for someone to check the players’ attitudes and prevent these outbursts.

Phoenix Outburst

It started during the Genesis Invitational with Rory McIlroy.  What happened with Rory McIlroy was that spectators kept heckling him about his caddie, consequently making him snap.  Why?  Because at the time, McIlroy hadn’t won a major in ten years.  Additionally, this happened again right before the Masters, and McIlroy had the last laugh.  However, he did snap at a spectator who had fans lay heavy into him.  

The US Open Outbursts

The US Open was really hard on the players.  The Oakmont course is notoriously difficult, and the players saw the fleet of lawn mowers as the club rubbing salt into the wound.  Two major incidents brought ire onto the players.  The first was McIlroy throwing his club.  The second was the locker room incident with Wyndham Clark.  When he took his rage out on his locker.  The Oakmont has always prided itself on its historical preservation.  Not all the lockers are original, but the design has been unchanged since the 1920s.  He did receive some consequences for this.  He was banned from Oakmont and ordered to pay for damages to the locker.  This wasn’t Clark’s first outburst this year, either.  During the PGA Championship, he threw his club into a sign after a bad swing, breaking both the sign and his club.

Outbursts On LIV

LIV Golf was not safe from behavior issues.  Brooks Koepka directed his anger at a tee marker at LIV Dallas.  The incident was caught on video, and the destroyed marked flew towards surrounding spectators.  The main concern was that someone could have easily gotten hurt.  The only reason no one got hurt was that they jumped out of the way.  

A Call To Action

Every time one of these outbursts happened, fans and commentators would call for action to be taken.  Some retired pros expressed empathy, particularly with everything that happened at Oakmont.  Those, however, always ended with a call for the player in question to make up for it.  So what can be done?  One thing that can be done is for the leagues to implement rules to curb this sort of behavior.  Oakmont did the right thing in charging Clark for damages and banning him from the clubhouse.  

On the field, penalties are in place, but they seem to be insufficient.  McIlroy was fined and penalized for snapping at hecklers, yet his behavior has been a regular problem throughout the year.  Some think that the current penalty set is not doing enough to discourage this behavior.  These outbursts have been hard to watch for fans and have caused their own storms.  For the 2026 season, something more needs to be done; otherwise, people will be discouraged from watching and engaging with the sport.