Grouchy Golf Blog

The days of the polite "golf" clap being the loudest sound heard at PGA events are long gone. Like foreign Asian carp crowding out native fish in the Great Lakes, shouts of ridiculous phrases are increasingly drowning out the pleasant applause. It started years ago, presumably when Tiger's immense popularity drew in casual fans who previously wouldn't be caught dead on a golf course. The man who first coined the term "You da man!" and yelled it after a Wood's swing sparked an irreversible chain-reaction. He broke a long-standing and unspoken rule to not speak. When people realized that shouting after swings doesn't automatically boot you off the course, it encouraged other non-traditional golf fans to participate. "You da man!" and "get in the hole" were popular for a time, but it eventually got old and was replaced by more nonsensical phrases such as "mashed potatoes" and "bababooey".

Needless to say, the expanding shouting phenomenon is troubling to many traditional golf fans. Even golf announcers are starting to express their dismay during broadcasts. Can you imagine what the PGA golfers must think? Anyone who plays the game knows that maintaining focus and concentration are keys for performance. One would think that these things are easily disrupted by an idiot yelling "Chewbacca" for attention. I would think most PGA pros side with Ian Poulter who has publicly expressed his disdain for the annoying interruptions. He wants the PGA Tour to take action:

I'm calling for @PGATOUR to step in & stop this shouting out right after shots. Message in to @PGATOUR with your thoughts. Tazer them?

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) August 12, 2013

But evidently there is a small number of PGA pros that don't agree with Ian. Incredibly, Keegan Bradley actually encourages fans to engage in this obnoxious behavior. He even had "bababooey" stamped into his Cleveland wedge. If this isn't the golf apocalypse, I don't know what is...