As Tommy Fleetwood was preparing to put the finishing touches on his first PGA Tour win at the Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake, an unexpected interruption paused his big moment.
With Fleetwood and his partner, Patrick Cantlay, on the 18th green, a fan tossed a neon green sex toy onto the putting surface, causing a momentary disruption before Fleetwood’s final putt. NBC on-course reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay kicked the toy off the green and into the bunker. A security guard then removed it and walked off.
Throwing sex toys onto the playing surface at sporting events has unfortunately become a recent trend that started at WNBA games late last month.
A group of cryptocurrency meme-coin generators took credit for starting the prank. However, they claim they did so to bring awareness to their “Green Dildo Coin” they were launching and shine a light on what they called a “toxic” work environment in the crypto world. A spokesman for the group told USA Today that many smaller players in the crypto space are struggling due to scammers and influencers.
“We didn’t do this because like we dislike women’s sports or, like, some of the narratives that are trending right now are ridiculous,” he told USA TODAY. “Creating disruption at games is like, it happens in every single sport, right? We’ve seen it in the NFL, we’ve seen it in hockey, you know . . . fans doing random things to more or less create attention.”
The trend continued throughout August, leading to several arrests.
Delbert Carver, 23, was arrested after throwing a sex toy at a game in Atlanta. Kaden Lopez, 18, was arrested after hitting a man with a sex toy during a Phoenix Mercury game on Aug. 5. Charles Burgess, 32, was also arrested after the sex toy he threw struck a 12-year-old girl at a New York Liberty game.
This is the first known time a flying sex toy has disrupted a PGA Tour event.
Despite the momentary interruption, Fleetwood calmly tapped in his par putt to clinch his first PGA Tour victory and claim the FedEx Cup title.
“I think it’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient, that they bounce back, that they have fight,” Fleetwood said after his win. “It’s different when you actually have to prove it. There’s different types of mental strength. … I’ve had to have mental strength in a different way. I’ve had to be resilient in terms of putting myself back up there, getting myself back in that position, no matter how many times it doesn’t go my way, no matter how many doubts might creep in. Think the right things, say the right things to yourself, say the right things outwardly, and I am really pleased that I can be proof that if you do all the right things and you just keep going that it can happen.”
