Golf fans — like basketball and football fans — should be banned from swarming the playing surface | Commentary

Running off at the typewriter …

Call me an old fuddy-duddy if you want, but I was screaming, “Get off that lawn!!!” as I watched the chaotic mass of golf fans break through the ropes Sunday and swarm Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka as they made their way to the 18th green during Mickelson’s historic victory at the PGA Championship.

I know it makes for great TV when college basketball fans storm the court or college football fans storm the field or pro golf fans storm the course and envelope the winning golfer, but it’s incredibly dangerous. Mickelson called the experience on Sunday “unnerving” while Koepka complained that his injured right knee got “dinged” as he was jostled by rowdy fans.

To the credit of tournament organizers, they apologized for letting the crowd get out of control but, quite frankly, more sports officials need to treat the issue of crowd control like former Florida Gators athletics director Jeremy Foley, who used to get criticized for the party-pooping, heavy-handed tactics he used to keep frantically ecstatic basketball fans from rushing the court or drunkenly giddy football fans from storming the field and ripping down the goal posts.

“You have to let fans know this won’t be tolerated,” Foley once told me. “You can’t have people getting trampled. Do we have to get somebody paralyzed or killed before we start taking this seriously?”

Actually, there are chronicled cases when players or fans have been paralyzed and killed when sports organizers endorse these mob scenes by doing absolutely nothing to keep out-of-control crowds off the playing surface.

Don’t ever forget, fans are there to watch the games, not take part in them.

Short stuff: Speaking of Mickelson, it didn’t take long after his PGA Championship victory for him to team up with fellow fogey Tom Brady. It was announced Wednesday that the two championship-winning senior citizens will team up for a July 6 exhibition golf match against Bryson DeChambeau and Aaron Rodgers. I guess you could say it’s Lefty’s team vs. Hefty’s team. And you gotta love the fact that Brady is already talking trash. Tweeted TB12 Wednesday: “Two champions vs. a scientist and a Jeopardy host.” … Did you see where wrestler/actor John Cena found it necessary to go onto a Chinese social media video platform and apologize to China for a previous interview in which he referred to Taiwan as a country while promoting his new movie “F9” — the latest “Fast & Furious” film? As one of my peeps on social media pointed out, Cena’s pathetic apology looked like a hostage video. In fact, if Cena’s Chinese suck-up video had been a political advertisement, you would have heard the following voice-over at the end of it: “This is LeBron James and I approve this message.” …

Speaking of LeBron: For those asking why he wasn’t suspended last week even though he took part in a public tequila-tasting promotional event that violated the NBA’s COVID health and safety protocols, isn’t the answer pretty obvious: LeBron is the commissioner of the league. You think he’s going to suspend himself?!! … I’m starting to think the Miami Heat’s run to the Finals in the NBA’s Disney bubble last season was the biggest one-hit wonder since the Baja Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out.” … By the way, who didn’t know that Lakers star Anthony Davis would have a monster performance in Game 2 against the Phoenix Suns after he played so poorly in Game 1? If A.D. were a stock, smart investors would have “bought the dip” after Game 1. … I just saw where Joe West set an MLB record earlier this week by umpiring his 5,376th game. By my calculations, that means he’s been cussed out exactly 9,978,455 times after missing 4,237,977 calls. … And speaking of umpires, I’m reminded of my favorite old sports limerick, which goes like this:

There once was an ump whose vision,

Was cause for abuse and derision,

He remarked with surprise,

“Why pick on my eyes?

“It’s my heart that dictates my decision.”

… Former Sentinel colleague David Whitley in the Gainesville Sun: “LeBron James could go to a bat soup launch party at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the NBA would not suspend him.” … Can you believe Cleveland Indians pitcher Zach Plesac broke his thumb the other night when he — and I swear I’m not making this up — “aggressively” took off his shirt. My memory is a little foggy, but I think the last time I aggressively took off my shirt was on the night I lost my virginity. … Will the last Auburn player to transfer to UCF please turn out the lights? … Headline at TheOnion.com: “Trae Young Silences MSG Crowd To Tell Spike Lee ‘School Daze’ Had Too Many Plotlines.” … You know former UCF and current Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is desperate for victories when the Cornhuskers have an early-season game scheduled against Fordham. Coming soon: Nebraska schedules nonconference games against Al’s Barber College, Pinky’s Cosmetology Institute and Aunt Phyllis’s Cake-Decorating School.

Last word: Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers when commenting on the passion of the 11,000 home fans at the Sixers’ Game 1 playoff matchup with the Washington Wizards: “I can’t believe that was 10,000, 11,000 [people]. There’s no way. I think we’re counting like the Republicans because it felt like 30,000 people in the stands.”

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2