Justin Thomas Apologizes for Kicking Fan Out

Many PGA TOUR players have expressed a lot of discontent with how fans have been acting towards them on the course. That came to a boiling point this past weekend.

The Honda Classic was incredibly competitive this weekend, ending in a playoff where Justin Thomas emerged with his 8th career PGA TOUR victory. The big story however wasn’t about Thomas and the excellent run he’s been on, but rather on the fan that he confronted and ultimately had kicked out of the gallery for rooting against him.

The story has been both positive and negative for Thomas, one of the most vocal players against boisterous fans this season, after he asked officials to remove the rowdy fan. There are some points where the conversation between the two is audible, where Thomas is asking for the fan to be removed after heckling him all day.

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According to Thomas and other people who were around the course, the fan wasn’t merely expressing his dislike for Thomas but ruthlessly badgering Thomas after every shot. For one, he would shout after Thomas’ shot, sometimes in the back swing, that he was hoping for the ball to end up in the water hazard or out of bounds. The tipping point came on the 16th hole where the fan made a remark about the sand trap after Thomas’ shot.

Thomas has gotten some slack for this move, with others saying that the fan’s heckling wasn’t worthy of the dismissal. He took to Twitter on Monday to express some regret for overreacting to the heckling. He also stated that he doesn’t go into an event wanting to remove a fan but also defended his decision by stating that there was a lot said on their walk to the tee box and that everything was unnecessary.

Getting a lot of comments on the fan incident yesterday.. sorry to any and all offended by it. There was more said as we walked to the tee wishing bad things on the course for myself or Luke. Then the get in the bunker comment over and over again I felt…

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 26, 2018

…it was very understandable to have him escorted out. I never want to lose fans, or have people root against me. I just didn’t see a place for that particular person to be yelling at us things that weren’t necessary over and over again. I over reacted…

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 26, 2018

..and should not have had him kicked out. I feel bad for it, but was more doing so because again I felt the stuff he was saying was completely unnecessary. I love all my fans and to hear that I’ve lost quite a few bc of that, isn’t fun. So I’m sorry to all!

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 26, 2018

..and should not have had him kicked out. I feel bad for it, but was more doing so because again I felt the stuff he was saying was completely unnecessary. I love all my fans and to hear that I’ve lost quite a few bc of that, isn’t fun. So I’m sorry to all!

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 26, 2018

…the fans are who support us all on TOUR and we are extremely lucky to have them each and every week. Thanks to all who came out and supported at @TheHondaClassic and continue to every week we play. We (I) love you guys

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 26, 2018

It seemed to be only a matter of time until something like this was going to happen at an event. The PGA definitely has a fan problem this year and I’m interested to see how they will address it moving forward.

Cover Image via Instagram