The 8 hottest moments from the 2025 professional golf season

While the 2025 golf season had many highlights (Rory McIlroy’s Grand Slam career, Scottie Scheffler’s two major victories), it was off to a far from controversial start.

The year had many lows as the pressure of professional golf spilled over into heated confrontations between players, fans, cameramen and, in one case, historic lockers.

So before we ring in the new year, we’ve put together a list of this year’s nine most exciting golf moments.

Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and caddies compete in the Ryder Cup

Unsurprisingly, the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black appears multiple times on this list. But this first instance is the only one involving an argument between players and caddies, and not between fans and players.

On Saturday in the foursomes match between Americans Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler and Europeans Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, it turned ugly as it reached its climax.

In the midst of a tense back-and-forth match, Rose waved DeChambeau’s caddy Greg Bodine out of the way as Rose waited to putt on the 15th green. The commotion escalated as the players walked to the 16th tee.

DeChambeau was whistling at Fleetwood, and Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, was in a tense exchange with European vice-captain Edoardo Molinari.

As the jaw-dropping continued at age 16, Smylie Kaufman said this during the TV broadcast: “Don’t exaggerate guys — every person on this T-shirt is excited.”

The altercation was eventually diffused when Scott and Molinari released a joint video the next morning settling the beef.

Wyndham Clark smashes lockers at Oakmont (and throws club into board at PGA)

The second “most heated” moment on our list wasn’t a dispute between two players, but between a former major champion and a series of lockers.

Wyndham Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, angrily stepped out in Oakmont’s historic locker room, damaging several lockers. When a photo of the damage was leaked, Clark was suspended from the club. He later apologized.

But it wasn’t the first time in 2025 that Clark took his anger out on an inanimate object at a Tour event.

At the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, Clark threw his driver at a board on the 16th tee, severely damaging it. He has also apologized for that.

Rory McIlroy takes Heckler’s phone during Players Championship

Rory’s first appearance on the list comes from the Players Championship in March. During a practice round on Tuesday, a University of Texas junior heckled McIlroy after driving into a water hazard.

The argument was reportedly related to McIlroy’s collapse at the 2011 Masters. Rory’s reaction was out of character. He confronted the heckler and his teammate, then grabbed one of their cell phones and walked away with it.

Rory suffered no consequences, but the heckler was expelled and later punished by his school. McIlroy won the Masters a month later to silence the troublemakers forever.

Shane Lowry gets into a heated battle with TV cameraman at PGA Championship

The next three incidents occurred during the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

In the first film, Shane Lowry came into action at a crucial moment with an ESPN cameraman. On the verge of missing the cut in Friday’s second round, Lowry suffered a terrible break when his tee shot landed in another player’s turf.

Lowry called in an umpire to help with the ruling, but as he did so, a TV cameraman went up to Lowry and told him that his ball was not in his own pitch mark, which would have allowed Lowry to take a free drop.

Lowry didn’t like that. He confronted the cameraman at that point and continued after his round.

“I just asked the referee, and the ESPN guy came right up to him and said, ‘That’s not your pitch mark.’ And I say, ‘That’s not your place to talk about.’ That’s up to me to call a rules official and decide what happens. I just said to the rules official, what happens to the guy at 7:10 who’s not on ESPN Live?” Lowry said after his round. “It’s just that the ESPN guy was a little too involved when he wasn’t asked to be, and that really annoyed me.”

Brooks Koepka challenges Heckler to fight at PGA

Our second heated moment at this year’s PGA involved four-time major winner Brooks Koepka and a troublesome fan.

On Friday, when Koepka was struggling on the course, a fan decided to taunt Koepka for his decision to join LIV. Koepka’s caddy reacted first before Koepka took over the confrontation.

He pointed to the fan and shouted, “You wanna come over here and say it? You wanna come over here and say it? Tough guy now, huh?”

Fortunately, the situation did not escalate further.

Mudballs at Quail Hollow anger Scottie Scheffler

During this year’s PGA Championship, mud caused a lot of anxiety among the players in the field. The rain left the fairways of Quail Hollow soft. The result was that many players got stuck with dreaded mudballs.

At a normal PGA Tour event, organizers may have introduced a preferential lie rule, allowing players to pick up their balls, clean them and place them on the fairway. But because it was a major, PGA officials declined to do so.

Frequent mud balls produced some squirrely, unpredictable shots. Many complaints followed from the pros, especially from world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who spoke at length about the issue after the second round.

“I understand how a golf purist would be, ‘Oh, play it like it is.’ But I don’t think they understand what it’s like to literally work your entire life learning how to hit a golf ball and how to drive it, how to take shots and how to control distance, and suddenly, due to a rules decision, [all] that was taken from us completely by chance.

“In golf, there is so much luck in a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be about whether or not the ball is played up or down. When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion, maybe the ball should have been played up today. But like I said, I don’t make the rules. I’m concerned with what the rules decisions are.”

By the end of the week, Scheffler hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy as PGA champion.

Bryson DeChambeau promises to page Rory McIlroy, Rory responds

The 2025 Ryder Cup was heating up long before the first shots were fired at Bethpage Black. In the lead-up, rivals Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy had a back-and-forth via the media.

At the New York premiere of “Happy Gilmore 2,” DeChambeau fired the first salvo, saying, “I’ll whistle in [McIlroy’s] ear this time [at the Ryder Cup]. If we’re going head-to-head now, I mean you can be sure of it.”

McIlroy responded the Guardiansaying, “I think the only way he gets attention is to mention other people. That’s actually what I think about that. To get attention he’ll mention me or Scottie [Scheffler] or others.”

McIlroy, of course, had the last laugh (again) when the Europeans resoundingly defeated the American team at the Ryder Cup. But Rory couldn’t quite let go. During festivities at Bethpage, McIlroy was seen covering DeChambeau’s name on a banner with a European flag.

Bethpage fans heckle Rory McIlroy as the Ryder Cup goes off the rails

Forget the dominance of the Europeans during the first two days at Bethpage Black. The same goes for the Americans’ heroic Sunday comeback, which fell just short. The biggest story of the 2025 Ryder Cup, and perhaps of golf’s entire year, was the brutal harassment Rory McIlroy and his European teammates faced from fans.

In too many cases to mention, fans crossed every conceivable line with inappropriate comments hurled at McIlroy and his family during the three-day event.

A frustrated McIlroy responded in kind with his own expletives, directed at the fans and captured live on TV. In one of the most unfortunate moments, a host joined in an expletive-laden chant and was fired.

All this marred the event forever and provoked a chorus of criticism from across the golfing world. During their triumphant press conference, McIlroy and the European team elaborated on the ‘astonishing’ abuse they faced from fans.