Rory McIlroy helped Europe win the Ryder Cup and then called out the hostile New York crowd for “unacceptable and abusive behaviour.”
Over his five matches at Bethpage Black, McIlroy endured a torrent of insults about everything from his personal life to past failures on the golf course. People shouted out as he lined up to swing and putt. His wife was hit by a cup of beer.
“What happened here this week is not acceptable,” McIlroy said on Sunday after going 3-1-1 to help Europe beat the United States 15-13. His lone loss came in a Sunday singles match with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who had also played in all five sessions, that was more of a slog than a pristine, shot-for-shot battle of the world’s top two players.
It was McIlroy’s most blunt assessment yet of a New York crowd that Europe fully expected to be rowdy and passionate — captain Luke Donald even gave players virtual-reality goggles to get used to the noise — but maybe not this crass or downright obnoxious.
The 36-year-old Northern Irishman, who came to Bethpage on a mission to win his second Ryder Cup on U.S. soil, sometimes pushed back — whirling around and cursing at his hecklers or stepping away from a shot until the riled masses settled down.
On Saturday, he told boisterous fans to “shut the [expletive] up” before knocking his approach to 3 feet to set up a clinching putt in a morning foursomes match. When a fan yelled, “You’re not that good, Rory!” he responded: “I’m [expletive] very good.”
“I am,” McIlroy added at the winners’ press conference. “Really good.”
While there was more golf to play, McIlroy stayed guarded in his post-match interviews. Asked on Saturday if he thought fans had crossed a line, he said: “People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not.” After all, he still had to deal with them on Sunday.
With the crowds gone and the Ryder Cup in hand, the five-time major champion let loose.
“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” McIlroy told reporters, his European teammates and captain crowded around on the interview room dais. “I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.”
Then he turned philosophical about the sport that has made him rich and popular, that he has worked at since he was a boy, that he has achieved so much in, including the career Grand Slam.
“Golf has the ability to 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,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup.”
The culprits, he noted, were the minority of a crowd full of “true golf fans” who were “respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest.”
As Europe got out to a hot start, leading 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 after the first day, the world’s second-ranked player became European Enemy No. 1 among a small but vocal subset of the crowd. As European fans serenaded him with their go-to cheer, a version of a song by the Cranberries that replaces “Zombie” with “Rory,” American fans did everything they could to knock him off his game.
They reminded him of his missed putt to lose the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2024. They made fun of his height. They mocked his Irish heritage. They went after his wife.
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing,” McIlroy’s friend and teammate Shane Lowry said. “The way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.”
Lowry assumed the role of bodyguard and bouncer as tensions rose during his and McIlroy’s fourball match on Saturday. The Irishman told off fans and jawed with hecklers, thumping his chest, marching across the green and cursing at the crowd after sinking a pivotal putt.
By Sunday, a European victory was all but assured. The visitors were up 11 1/2 to 4 1/2 going into the final round. No side had ever come back from such a deficit — and still hasn’t.
As the U.S. mounted a charge, aided by Scheffler’s win over McIlroy, there were chants of “USA!” and a few insults flung McIlroy’s way, but fans behaved, for the most part. More than a dozen state troopers flanked their group and a marshal warned spectators to “keep it clean.”
In the end, it was McIlroy who had the final word. In April, he won the Masters after years of trying to complete the career grand slam. Now, he’s won his sixth Ryder Cup in eight tries, improving his record in the event to 19-14-5. And the next one is a veritable home game, at Adare Manor in Ireland.
“We will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable,” he said. “And for me, it’s, you know, come and support your home 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.”
