The hooligan who was heckling Mardy Fish at the American Century Championship had a sinister reason for wanting Stephen Curry to win the tournament.

With Fish holding a lead on the final hole of the tournament at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on Sunday, a crazed fan screamed during his backswing.

Fish hooked his tee shot, and ultimately made par on the hole, as Curry scored an eagle to come from behind and defeat Fish for the win.

Fish appeared on Ryen Russillo’s podcast on The Ringer, and revealed the ulterior motive of the heckler.

When a group of people approached the heckler to demand to know why he was in such violation of golf decorum, he spilled the beans.

“He said he bet on Steph to win, and so he wanted him to win,” Fish said.

Mardy Fish revealed that a heckler who contributed to costing him the American Century Championship had bet on Steph Curry to win.Getty Images

“You start thinking about it, and you’re surprised that type of stuff doesn’t happen more often with all the betting nowadays, certainly in golf, right? Like you could really pay some heckler or something, like Happy Gilmore, a ‘Shooter I’ll see you at the Red Lobster’ kind of thing, and you could [swing events].

“I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often, to be honest. The guy probably had a lot of money on Steph and he wanted him to win.”

Even before the motive was revealed, people were appalled.

“That was awful,” the NBC Sports reporter who was following the group said at the time. “…Those things are really done by cowards. That’s the way it is. Stupid cowards.”

Fish told Russillo that, in addition to yelling during his backswing, the heckler also yelled at him, “Hey, Fish, f–k you, you suck!”

Curry wasn’t happy about the whole situation either.
Steph Curry kisses the American Century Championship trophy in Tahoe.Getty Images
“You have to acknowledge it, it was an unfortunate situation,” he told reporters after securing the victory.

“A guy trying to sabotage what was going on for a moment. Mardy is such a class act. I complimented him for the way he bounced back to give himself a chance to win.”