Golf Channel analyst Eamon Lynch went after Long Island golf fans on Monday, calling them “a stain on the game” and arguing they should never host another major championship.
“Long Island golf fans are a stain on the game of golf,” Lynch said during a segment on Golf Channel the morning after Wyndham Clark won the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. “That’s what we saw at Bethpage, it’s what we see every single time we go to Long Island.”
Lynch called out the PGA of America directly over its plans to return to Bethpage Black for the 2033 PGA Championship. “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,” he said.
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The comments came after several fans were ejected from Shinnecock Hills during Clark’s final round on Sunday. Police removed multiple spectators for heckling Clark as he played. Fans were heard yelling “Don’t choke Wyndham” and “Get in the bunker” as he set up over shots. One fan was removed for shouting “crash and burn.”
Clark entered Sunday with a six-shot lead and held on to win by one stroke over Sam Burns. He acknowledged the hostile atmosphere after the round. “Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said. “It’s pretty rare in an Open Championship or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots. Yeah, I mean, that was tough, but sometimes being the underdog is nice.”
Playing partner Scottie Scheffler, who was the crowd favorite throughout the final round, also weighed in after the round. “The crowd was tough today. New Yorkers are tough people. There was a good turnout from the fans,” Scheffler said. “You like seeing the fans cheer for you. I think sometimes it can get a little too much when balls are going off greens and you start hearing cheers. That felt a bit much to me.”
Lynch distinguished Long Island crowds from New York fans broadly. “This isn’t a New York problem,” he said. “It doesn’t happen at Winged Foot, doesn’t happen at Baltusrol on the other side of the Hudson River. It happens on Long Island every single time.”
He pinned part of the blame on a specific type of attendee. “It’s the drunk crypto bros who buy a ticket with daddy’s credit card and they’ve gone through life without ever being slapped for something they’ve said,” Lynch said.
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Fellow Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee was equally blunt. “I think it was the worst I’ve ever seen a player treated when you consider it was an American player on American soil,” Chamblee said. “I’ve never seen anybody have to deal with that element in a major championship to the extent that I saw Wyndham have to deal with it today.”
Lynch pointed to the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black as further evidence of a pattern. At that event, European players faced sustained heckling timed to their backswings. A fan threw a drink that struck Rory McIlroy‘s wife, Erica Stoll, while she walked the course.
Lynch proposed Augusta National’s model as a solution. “Maybe golf in its entirety needs to take the Augusta National model,” he said. “No phones, no tolerance, no second chance.”
The PGA of America has not announced any changes to the Bethpage Black 2033 PGA Championship schedule.
