Rory McIlroy slammed the behaviour of abusive American golf fans and said that the ugly scenes that unfolded during Europe’s dramatic victory over the USA were ‘unacceptable’.
McIlroy was targeted relentlessly by US fans during the three days of the competition at Bethpage Black and subjected to continual taunts and attempts to disrupt his game.
His wife, Erica, was hit by a can of beer thrown from the crowd and McIlroy’s teammate, Shane Lowry, said the amount of abuse she received was ‘astonishing’.
When he was asked how startled he had been to see police dogs patrolling the fairways and greens at Bethpage Black, McIlroy said: ‘I wish they would have let the dogs off the leashes.’
McIlroy was subjected to more taunts on Sunday as he lost a tight singles match to Scottie Scheffler and Europe survived a US fightback to crawl across the line to win 15-13.
McIlroy promised that fans going to Adare Manor in Ireland for the next Ryder Cup in 2027 would not repeat the antics of the US supporters here.
‘Look,’ McIlroy said, ‘I don’t think we should ever accept that behaviour in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.
‘Golf has the ability to you unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.
‘Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup.
‘But you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable, and for me, it’s — you know, come and support your home team. Come and support your team.
‘I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people…I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.’
McIlroy reacted several times to abuse over the course of the weekend and snapped back at fans who tried to put him off while he was standing over a shot.
He told one fan to ‘shut the f*** up’ on Saturday afternoon before hitting the approach shot that won a critical fourballs match for him and partner Tommy Fleetwood.
‘Look, it was a rough week for all of us,’ McIlroy said. ‘But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played, and we tried to — I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that.
‘The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane. Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be physical altercation or anything like that apart from maybe Tommy and Rosey up to the 16th tee yesterday.
‘But there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour. It’s a minority of the crowd. It’s not the majority.
‘The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest.
‘But you know, there was a small subset of people that behaved a little bit differently than that.
‘Our families should be off-limits, but obviously it wasn’t this week. Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman.
‘You know, she handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.’
In a powerful moment during the victorious Ryder Cup team’s press conference, Erica also recieved support from Justin Rose and Shane Lowry.
‘Can I just pick up on that, if you don’t mind?’ Rose said. ‘I actually had no idea Erica had a beer thrown at her yesterday. Fair play to Erica, she didn’t bring that to the team room, we didn’t make that a big deal.
‘That’s news to me, that says a lot about the strength of Erica.’
Lowry added: ‘I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing. And the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable. Kudos to her for that.’
