PGA Pro Max Homa sat on the microphone before the John Deere Classic in July for his media supply. It was one of the lowest-productive seasons of his career, with the Masters’ T12 being his only top 20.
But for all this frustration that day, the 34-year-old spent some time talking about the challenges he had been feeling in the course… Specifically, why he took a large step back and took a step back. “It is ridiculous for people to feel comfortable writing horrible things,” he said, suggesting the anonymity these platforms offer.
“I don’t know if it’s the gambling world or what. I’m glad they can do it because it looks as fun as hell of golf, but people say something bad. You let people tell you you should die on the internet.” “It’s not about not connecting. I love to connect with people, but I try to do more in person because I haven’t seen someone who is talking in person or even out of reach.”
That Sunday, Homa tied for fifth place in the season’s best John Deere. But that’s not good enough, for “zane_layer3” on Instagram (an account that no longer exists or cannot be searched for), they sent the vulgar rant to Homa’s account. The golfer ended up with the title “I think he lost his parlay” title and laugh emoji.
Homa’s performance wasn’t enough to get the “Carl-Watkins-5” on Venmo, which asked Homa for $1,900 with the title “BC You Can’t Delay Under Pressure.” Homa took the screenshot and responded sharply in his Instagram story: “Gam like a big boy Carl and grab your lump like the rest of us.”
This is not the first time Homa has performed with the public in this way. During the 2024 U.S. Open, The Washington Post reported that Homa received multiple Venmo requests a week, and the golfer said, “This has grown old.” A year later, ahead of the 2025 U.S. Open, No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler said he removed Venmo because he was tired of interacting with fans on the platform.
“When I didn’t win, I was either paid by people or people asked me for a bunch of money,” Scheffler said. “The most people sent me was a few dollars here or there.
“It’s not as much as requests.”
Venmo is designed as an easy way for people to pay each other, often for things like reimbursement for meals and movie tickets.
However, Venmo’s Newsfeed (where users can choose to see what their friends pay and receive if they want to be public) is born to create a social media aspect that encourages participation. In the age of social media, the veil of anonymity has made these audiences frenzy that has made people almost impunely disrespectful athletes, which can increase money, which may bring a potentially disturbing precedent.
Finding celebrities on Venmo takes effort and luck. For example, Homa never publicly disclosed how his Venmo account was handled, but looking for his name on the platform suggests that one is likely his account. Venmo does allow users to make themselves private meanings, i.e. they can limit who sees who is friends and their payments, but it has no way to make users “completely incomprehensible” the public, as this will conflict with the central use cases of the vast majority of customers.
It creates a scenario where users can find public figures and constantly send venmo requests to them, and if they choose, then the outstanding athletes actually have only one solution.
“I ended up having to change my name on Venmo,” Ottawa Senator Brady Tkachuk told ESPN. “I have had it since college – I have selfies with my name. People have mastered that, so I have to change my name on it and delete my profile photo.
“Ensure that you have secure and positive experience on Venmo is a top priority,” a Venmo spokesman told ESPN. “It is prohibited to act in ways that may be considered harassment. While the spokesman said the company would track these cases and ban users as needed, they would not elaborate on how often they occur.
Venmo’s request is just one way for people to harass athletes online, and it may actually be a more harmless heck shape. Retired professional tennis player Mardy Fish said he heard and saw almost every form of exciting things while playing around the world, but the internet can add a whole new layer to cruelty.
“The venmo’s request seems to be fun, easy, ‘haha’s fun way, ‘Hey man, I bet you $20, you owe me $20. It’s just impossible to believe you didn’t win.’ “Yes, screwed up, anyway.” “He told ESPN. “It’s what they’re becoming personal and starting to really start. Max was my partner, so I saw what he posted after John Deere’s final round, which was a big deal. These people will never say to your face that they are just so satisfied with this social media stuff that they have no sense of responsibility, no responsibility. “Zero sense of responsibility.”
Starting from the Fish in the early 2000s, he said so far he said there are significant differences in the way the audience treats players because of the bets so widespread, and he is not the only athlete to share that sentiment. In an anonymous poll of 133 respondents, the sport found that 78.2% of Major League Baseball players felt that “legal sports betting has changed the way fans treat you or your teammates.”
“Oh, I’m ranked number one on that list now. I have a lot of [fans] Once asked for money. It’s not even a win or a score – that’s for my shot or my hit,” Tkachuk said. “I honestly find it interesting. Like, do people really think I’m going to send money because I didn’t shoot it? I was angry because I didn’t win the game, score or anything possible. I don’t care not to hit four and a half or any cover [prop] bet. ”
“It’s fun to get people so excited and crazy,” Tkachuk added. “It’s not even our thinking process.”
Fish is the center of a face-to-face event at the U.S. Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament he won in 2020 and 2024. In 2023, he led Stephen Curry to the final hole, and when he kicked off at 18, he yelled as his defender caused the filming.
Curry will eventually knock out the Hawk putt to win the game, but Fish claims he later found out that Heckler made money on the curry to win. It took away the damage to what would have been awesome.
“What’s even more surprising is that it happened here because American Century had such a great game and friendly match and everyone was happy and had a great time. That’s why it was shocked to us.”
The practice of bettors taking any measures to make the athlete’s head spread is spreading, and the perpetrators are getting bigger and bigger. In June, a Gatel ruthlessly mocked Olympic gold medalist Thomas during a Grand Slam race in Philadelphia, and later bragged that his move cost Thomas the game and allowed him to win his players. Since then, Fanduel has banned Bann’s platform.
In May, a drunken bet sent a message on social media threatening to murder the family of Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. After the Houston Police Department’s involvement, Gatel finally apologized to McCarles, a byproduct of the Major League Baseball Players Association’s efforts to step in such a serious case to protect its players.
“The Players Association takes players’ safety very seriously, so we hired a director of safety who was a former FBI agent with law enforcement links both in the U.S. and internationally,” a spokesperson for the MLBPA told ESPN. “He often raises safety issues on various issues and asks questions to players and their families, and corresponds to MLB security personnel and individual team security personnel at MLB and MILB.”
Even college athletes are not at age or salary rating to deal with these issues, but no rejected bettors are dissatisfied. In September, then Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne tried to get him to send him a venmo request. “It’s fun. When they lose money, they want money back. But when they win money on Parlay, no one sent me any money.”
In October, the NCAA published a study outlining that at least 12% of publicly published social media abuses were conducted by “angry sports shooters,” with some of which explicitly linked to betting and others implicitly. According to research in partnership with Signify Group, the NCAA has strided hard to address the issue and reported a 23% drop in abuse related to sports betting.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018, a big change in the sports world. The decision opened the floodgates of legal sports betting and immediately turned around entertainment and played the entertainment in the shadows of a few people playing in the shadows, the mainstream giant today.
While there are certainly many benefits to tax revenue and eliminating the black market, there are certainly unexpected consequences – an increase in harassment among athletes is common. A professional sports official told ESPN they don’t remember these specific issues that arose before the PASPA strike.
Sports betting promotes engagement and gives fans a feeling like they are part of the game, but their use of social media and financial applications brings disturbing psychological and emotional dimensions that athletes did not appear before this era. By investing literally in action in the field, would some Gatels probably think they are playing games right now?
Because they have paid the price of admission, perhaps, because they believe that the client is always right, modern hecklers seem to have the right to get the money the player owes. Or, maybe they think they need to play a mental game. Either way, this is not signed by the player.
ESPN senior NHL writer Greg Wysshynski reported on this article.
