Eamon Lynch of Golf Channel criticized golf fans in Long Island as a stain on the sport.
‘Do Not Deserve a Major’: Golf Analyst Sends Blunt Message to PGA of America as Wyndham Clark’s Mistreatment Raises Concern
In September 2025, the Ryder Cup crowd at Bethpage Black booed European players off the tee box, abused European pros and their family members, and forced the PGA of America to bring in extra state police. Then, in June 2026, a U.S. Open crowd at Shinnecock Hills did much the same to eventual champion, jeering American golfer Wyndham Clark from the first tee through the back nine. The pattern has sparked the same complaint about how Long Island treats the players it comes to watch.
That is exactly what Golf Channel’s Eamon Lynch addressed in the latest episode of Golf Central. Highlighting the sharp contrast between the fans at Winged Foot and Baltusrol, he unloaded on the unruly fans at Shinnecock and Bethpage Black, going as far as to claim they are a “stain” and that majors should be moved away from Long Island.
“Long Island golf fans are a stain on the game of golf. That’s what we saw at Bethpage. It’s what we see every single time we go to Long Island. The PGA of America is supposed to go back to Bethpage in 2033 with the PGA Championship. That should not happen. These people do not deserve a major championship,” Lynch expressed in no uncertain terms.
The analyst acknowledged Clark’s complicated reputation going into the week, but he didn’t stop there. Lynch also acknowledged the counterargument that this is a broader problem, with people gambling in golf. But in the end, he drew the comparison with other venues to hammer the point home.
“This isn’t a New York problem. It doesn’t happen at Winged Foot; it doesn’t happen at Baltusrol on the other side of the Hudson River. It happens on Long Island every single time,” Lynch added bluntly, and what Lynch described as repetitive and predictable is backed by multiple incidents.
Clark was jeered from the first tee onward, and reports throughout the championship described a crowd that stayed hostile no matter how well he played. Some of that hostility traced back to his locker-room outburst at Oakmont last year, an incident he’d already apologized for, and one fans clearly hadn’t forgotten. Clark won anyway, and he didn’t pretend the atmosphere had been easy.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win. It’s pretty rare in a U.S. Open or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots. Some of it’s self-deserved; I kind of brought it on myself. Yeah, that was tough, but sometimes being the underdog is nice.”
Scottie Scheffler, who was the crowd favorite and was also paired with Clark, spoke of the fan behavior after the final round.
“The crowd was tough today. New Yorkers, they are tough people… Sometimes it can get a little too much when, you know, balls are kind of going off greens and you start hearing cheers. That felt a bit much to me,” Scheffler said, alluding to fans cheering after every bad miss from Clark.
While all these were highlighted by Eamon Lynch, he also offered a solution on the show. That solution was Augusta National, which sits at the opposite end of this spectrum.
Patrons face a strict no-phone policy, a code that bans yelling and disruptive behavior outright, and a removal process that can escalate to credential forfeiture or a lifetime ban. ANGC’s reputation for decorum rests on those rules being enforced consistently. And that is the solution that Lynch offered, a model to fix the lack of decorum in golf.
“Maybe the golf in its entirety needs to take the Augusta National model. No phones, no tolerance, no second chance.”
He tied that frustration to a bigger problem: some fans now seem to treat disruptive behavior as entertainment, filming themselves heckling players in the hope of turning someone else’s bad moment into viral content. A spectator was recording himself while heckling McIlroy at Shinnecock. The moment, especially for McIlroy’s response, went viral afterward.
Notably, Lynch has made this argument before, including after the Ryder Cup, when Bethpage was already drawing the same kind of scrutiny it is facing again now.
At Bethpage last September, European players endured sustained boos, heckling timed to their backswings, and crowds that openly cheered missed putts. Rory McIlroy took much of the abuse. One fan threw a drink that struck the Ulsterman’s wife, Erica, and an emcee stepped down after leading a chant from the first tee microphone.
McIlroy didn’t hold back afterward, calling the conduct unacceptable and abusive and saying golf should be held to a higher standard. That does not change the official plans. Bethpage Black is still scheduled to host the PGA Championship in 2033, and the PGA of America has given no indication that is changing.
What Lynch’s comments do is reopen a debate golf has been having for months: how loud is too loud, where passionate support crosses into abuse, and whether Long Island’s crowd behavior fits the standard the sport expects anywhere else.
