Wagerin' madness

 It was George Patton who said (at least in the movie) "God how I hate the 20th century." But that was only because he never saw the 21st. 

PGA golfer Max Homa has. And deep down I suspect he's right there with George, even if he never said so.

What he did say yesterday was he thinks it's cool people can gamble on golf these days, even live on their phones thanks to 21st century technology. What he doesn't think is cool is knobs trying to win their bets by warping the competition.

This happened yesterday at the BMW Championship in Illinois, where Homa is among the leaders after 54 holes. Some knob in the gallery shouted "Pull it!" as Homa drew back on a 5-foot putt because, it turned out, he had a bet with some other knob that Homa would miss the putt.

Fortunately for Homa, he jarred the 5-footer. Then he pointed at the knob who yelled and yelled at him, calling him a clown and "maybe another word." 

Which we can all take to mean he called him a "mother(bleeping) clown" or something similar.

In any event, the knob was ejected from the premises. But it does make you wonder how often this is going to happen in the future with the advent of instant betting by phone.

You can sit in a sports bar watching a football game now, after all, and bet on the outcome of drives and even individual plays. Thing is, you're not in a position to influence the outcome there. Fans in a golf gallery, however, can influence it simply by yelling in the middle of a guy's putting stroke or backswing.

And there's no real way to police it unless the price of your ticket includes giving up your phone while you're on the golf course. This of course will never happen given how many knobs have knob lawyers who'd take the PGA to court for violating their free speech rights or some such thing.

Don't laugh. Look how many self-described free speech martyrs are out there right now filing ever-more-ridiculous lawsuits claiming their inalienable right to just make stuff up. Blatant lying is protected speech, it seems, no matter who it hurts.

Ah, the 21st century. Turns out Georgie Patton was a century off.