Star golfer Jordan Spieth lays into ‘scums’ seeking his autograph | Charlotte Observer

Golfer Jordan Spieth doesn’t have much use for professional autograph seekers.

In fact, he got into a verbal spat with a few of them after his practice round Wednesday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, calling them “scums.”

The group heckled Spieth, after he signed several autographs and then walked past them without signing for them, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Spieth, 23, turned and told them he believed they were professional autograph dealers trying to make a buck off his signature, the Mercury News reported.

The back-and-forth continued until one of the men fired off an F-bomb while Spieth was signing an autograph for a young boy beside two other kids. Spieth then turned back to the group and said, “C’mon, guys, there are children here.”

He said he usually lets his caddy, Michael Greller, handle such situations but he was frustrated and “didn’t appreciate the language that was used and ... just scums that just bothered me.”

“I felt the need to turn around and tell him that wasn’t right,” he said. “And a couple of them were saying, ‘You’re not Tiger Woods. Don’t act like your Tiger.’ And I was like ‘Whatever, guys. You’re still trying to benefit off me and I’m not even Tiger Woods. So what’s that say about you?’”

He was asked about the encounter later in the press room.

“It’s not necessarily worth me spending time arguing but I’m not appreciative of people who travel to benefit off of other people’s success,” he said. “I enjoy signing and sign for kids whenever we get the chance. When these guys have these items that you’ve already seen online — our team keeps track of that kind of stuff — and these guys that have just bags of stuff to benefit from other peoples’ success when they didn’t do anything themselves, you know, go get a job instead of trying to make money off of stuff that we’ve been able to do.”

He said he’s not averse to signing autographs.

“We like to sign stuff for charity or for kids, and if you ask anybody, universally, it’s the same way. It’s frustrating,” he said.

Spieth reached the top of the world golf rankings in 2015, the year he won the U.S. Open and Masters tournaments, and is the defending champion of the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial in Fort Worth, his first professional win in Texas. It will be played on Memorial Day weekend and run May 22-28.