Max Homa calls gambling heckler a 'clown' for antics at 2023 BMW Championship

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Max Homa became irritated Saturday with a gambling heckler who nearly cost him an important stroke here at the BMW Championship.

Playing in the final group of the day, Homa and Chris Kirk were both lining up birdie putts on the 17 green when two fans started yelling from the nearby grandstand.

At first, the belligerent spectators yelled for Kirk to leave his 19-foot birdie try short, which he did during a rough round of 75 at Olympia Fields.

Then Homa stepped up for his 5-footer for birdie.

“One of them had $3 for me to make mine,” Homa said, “and I got to the back of my back stroke, and he yelled, ‘Pull it!’ pretty loud. I made it right in the middle, and then I started yelling at him, and then [caddie] Joe [Griner] yelled at him.”

Cameras captured the exchange.

What’d Homa yell?

“That he was a clown,” he said. “Maybe another word.

“Long day, I guess. Hope he has a nice night, but it just sucks when that happens. I was happy I made it. It was rude what he did to Chris. Whatever.”

The situation did highlight an area of concern for Homa, especially with the proliferation of golf betting.

“I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing I’m worried about,” Homa said. “He didn’t care. I don’t know what he had to lose; he got kicked out, probably, and we were the last group.”

Homa said incidents like this have happened “very rarely” over the past few years, but “it’s just always something that’s on your mind.”

“It’s on us to stay focused, but it’s just annoying when it happens,” he said. “The one thing we have in this game – the fans are so great about being quiet when we play. I think they are awesome. When anybody ever talks, it’s so unintentional; they just don’t know we’re hitting.

“So it just sucks when it’s incredibly intentional, and his friend specifically said it was for $3. Not that the money matters, but that’s a frustrating number.”

Especially when the stakes couldn’t have been higher for Homa. A victory this week at the BMW would net him $3.6 million. It’d also put him atop the FedExCup standings with just the Tour Championship to play. The eventual season-long winner earns an eye-popping $18 million.

“But it doesn’t matter what we’re playing for,” Homa said. “We’re working so hard, and I grinded my tail off to get that back to near even par (for the day), and had I missed that, it would have been a pain.

“But it was nice to make it right in the middle, and hopefully he had to pay his buddy that $3 immediately on the way out of the property.”

Homa, the 36-hole leader, played a seven-hole stretch in 5 over par Saturday, but he made two late birdies – including the one on 17 – to sit just two shots off the lead.