Jordan Spieth ripped professional autograph seekers after clashing with a few at Pebble Beach on Wednesday.
Spieth was coming off the 18th green and while he was signing a few autographs for kids he heard complaints from a few adults when he didn’t sign for them as well. Spieth later said he thought they were professional autograph seekers who would sell the memorabilia online.
“So I turned around and one of them dropped an F-bomb in front of three kids, so I felt the need to turn around and tell them that that wasn’t right,” Spieth said at his press conference Wednesday. “And a couple of them were saying, ‘You’re not Tiger Woods, don’t act like you’re Tiger.’ I mean, it’s just like, Whatever, guys. You’re still trying to benefit off me and I’m not even Tiger Woods. So, you know, what’s that say about you?”
Spieth, who will tee it up alongside Jake Owen, Dustin Johnson and Wayne Gretzky to kick off the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Thursday, doesn’t think much of those would seek to capitalize off his signature.
“I’m not appreciative of people who travel to benefit off other people’s success. And just, we’re out here to — I enjoy signing and sign for kids whenever we get the chance,” he said. “And when these guys have these items that you’ve already seen online and people, we have — our team keeps track of that kind of stuff. And these guys that just have bags of stuff to benefit from other people’s success when they didn’t do anything themselves. Go get a job instead of trying to make money off of the stuff that we have been able to do. We like to sign stuff for charity stuff or for kids or — and if you ask anybody universally it’s the same way, it’s just, they frustrate us.”
Spieth said normally he would let caddie Michael Greller handle situations like this but his frustrations got the better of him.
“I was just a little frustrated at the end and I didn’t appreciate the language that was used and just some scums that just, it just bothered me,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Spieth expressed his frustration with professional autograph seekers. During last year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, he called out “eBayers” he saw crushing kids in the crowd while hunting for autographs.
