The PGA Pro Max Homa was sitting in the microphone for media availability ahead of John Deere Classic in July. It was one of the least productive seasons of his career, with the Masters T12 standing at that point as his only top 20 finish.
But on all his complaints on the course, the 34-year-old took the time to talk about the challenges he felt from the course… specifically, why he took a step back to some social media. “It’s very ridiculous to feel comfortable people writing terrible things,” he said. It hints at the anonymity that these platforms offer.
“I don’t know if it’s the world of gambling or what it is. I’m happy they can do it because it looks like hell of golf, but people say bad things, bad things. “It has nothing to do with not connecting. I love connecting with people, but I’m trying to do a little more because I haven’t met anyone who said something that means something far away.”
That Sunday, Homa came in fifth with John Deere, the best finish of the season. However, that wasn’t enough for Instagram’s “Zane_layer3” (an account that no longer exists or cannot be searched). The golfer eventually posted a screenshot with the caption “I think he lost Parley” along with a laughing emoji.
Homa’s performance was not enough for Venmo’s “Carl-Watkins-5.” Venmo asked for $1,900 from HOMA with the caption “BC BC You Can’t Prost under Pressure.” Homa took a screenshot and responded sharply in his Instagram story, “Gambling like a big boy curl and taking your chunks like the rest of us.”
This was not the first time Homa had to deal with public acting this way. Around the 2024 US Open, The Washington Post reported that Homa received Benmo requests multiple times a week. Golfers say, “It’s getting old.” A year later, ahead of the 2025 US Open, Scotty Schaeffler, the world’s No. 1 golfer, said he removed Benmo because he’s tired of interacting with fans of the platform.
“I was being paid by people or asking me a lot of money when people didn’t win, that wasn’t a good feeling. But no, I’m not paying attention to my favorites or anything like that,” Schaeffler said, referring to the odds of the bet. “It was a few dollars here and there that someone would send me.
“It didn’t happen as much as the request.”
Venmo is generally designed to be an easy way for people to pay each other, such as refunding meals and movie tickets.
But Venmo’s news feed – creates an aspect of social media that essentially drives engagement if users can see what their friends are paying and receiving, and choose to publish it. In the age of social media, where anonymous veils give those audiences impulses, creating a potentially nasty precedent in which athletes almost disregard immunity and add money to the mix.
Finding celebrities in Benmo takes effort and good fortune. For example, HOMA has never publicly revealed the handle of his Venmo account, but searching for his name on the platform makes it very well reveal his account. Venmo allows users to make themselves private in the sense that they can limit who their friends are and what payments they make, but it’s not a way for users to “doubtly out of control” because users contradict the central use cases of the majority of customers.
Create a scenario where users can find public figures and send Venmo requests on a continuous basis.
“I had to change my name in Benmo in the future,” Ottawa Senator Captain Brady Tokachuk told ESPN. “I had it from university – there was a selfie of me and my name. People got it, so I had to change my name to it and beat my profile picture.
“Ensuring a safe and positive experience with Benmo is our number one priority,” a Venmo spokesperson told ESPN. “Venmo users are prohibited from acting in a way that is deemed harassment. Once they notice this is happening on the platform, they will take action immediately, including the possibility of banning users from the platform,” the spokesman said the company will track these cases and ban users when necessary, but will not elaborate on how often it occurs.
Venmo’s requests are just one way people can harass athletes online. Mardy Fish, a retired professional tennis player, said he heard and saw almost every form of Raz shape when he was playing tournaments around the world, but the internet can cruelly add a whole new layer.
“Benmo’s requests look rather interesting and easy in the ‘haha’ funny way. “Yeah, shedding anything,” he told ESPN. “That’s when they get personal and they start to really attack. Max is my ally. So I saw what he posted after his final round at John Deere. These people never say it to your face.
Fish said from the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, until now, that there are noticeable differences in the way he treats the audience because betting is so common. He is not the only athlete who shares that sentiment. In an anonymous poll of 133 respondents, Athletic found that 78.2% of MLB players feel that “legalized sports betting has changed the way you and your teammates.”
“Yeah, I’m number one on that list now. I had a lot of (fans) who were asking for money at some point. It wasn’t even a victory or a scoring – it was for my shots and hits,” Tkachuk said. “To be honest, I think it’s funny. Do you really think people are going to send money to not make shots? You’re pissed off, whether you win a game, you don’t win a score or whatever it is.
“It’s pretty funny how people get so emotional and crazy,” adds Tkachuk. “It’s not even our thinking process.”
The fish was at the heart of face-to-face incidents at the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament that won in 2020 and 2024. In 2023 he headed Stephen Curry to the final hole and cried out as he teeed off at the age of 18.
Curry eventually sinks the Eagle Putt to win the tournament, but Fish later claims he learned that Heckler had spent money on Curry. It hurt what would have been an otherwise great event.
“It was amazing what happened here because the American century has shown such a great tournament and friendly events and everyone is having such a happy and enjoyable time. So it was jarring for us,” Fish said.
The practice of bettors doing something to get into the athlete’s mind is widespread, and the assailants are becoming more brave. In June, bettors mercilessly hexed Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia. Fan Duell has since banned bettors from its platform.
In May, a drunk bettor sent a message overseas, sending messages on social media, threatening to kill the family of Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCulls Jr. Bettor ultimately apologized to McCulls after the Houston Police Department was involved. This is a by-product of the Major League Baseball Players Association’s efforts to protect players in such serious cases.
“The Players Association takes players’ safety very seriously, which is why we employ a security director, a former FBI agent with law enforcement contacts in the US and internationally,” an MLBPA spokesman told ESPN. “He regularly places safety and concerns from players and their families on a variety of issues, addressing individual team security personnel from MLB Security and MLB and MILB.”
Even college athletes are not spared from the wrath of spurred bettors, not necessarily in order to address these issues, rather than age or pay grades. In September, then Aubern quarterback Payton Thorne tried to make clear that the bettor would send him a request for Benmo. “Funny. When they lose money, they want to get their money back. But when they win money on Parley, no one ever sent me money,” he said on the “Next Round” podcast.
In October, the NCAA published a study outlining that at least 12% of published social media abuses were carried out by “Angry Sports Bettors,” with some posts being explicitly linked to bets, and others being implicitly related. The NCAA has made progress in stymieing the issue, and according to a study in partnership with the Spocify Group, it reported a 23% reduction in abuse related to sports betting.
The world of sports changed dramatically when the US Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. The decision launched the lock for legal sports betting and instantly changed recreation.
There are certainly benefits through tax revenue and black market elimination, but of course there are unintended consequences. And the increase in athlete harassment is common. A professional sports official told ESPN he could not recall these specific issues before the Paspa hit.
While sports betting promotes engagement and provides a way for fans to feel part of the game, the use of social media and financial applications presents troubling mental and emotional aspects that did not exist in athletes before this era. By literally investing in action on the field, isn’t it strange that some bettors believe they’re playing the game themselves?
They paid the admission fee, so perhaps modern Hecklers feel the right to receive the money the players owed to them, as they believe that the customers are always right. Or maybe they believe they need to play mental games. In any case, this is not something that a player has signed up.
Senior NHL writer Greg Wyshynski at ESPN contributed a report on this work.
