Rory McIlroy has had a tough time this week at Bethpage. Very tough. Not only has he been the target of insults and more or less aggressive outbursts, but also his family, his wife. He has handled it as best as he could. He has bitten his tongue more than once or twice and only reacted when he couldn’t take it anymore. The treatment he received from the crowd was, obviously, one of the main topics after Europe’s victory in the Ryder Cup and the Northern Irishman, without wanting to make too much of it, was as clear as usual.
“It was a tough week for all of us. But, at the same time, we silenced them with our performance and how we played, and we tried… I responded a couple of times because it got to me a bit, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and composure, and, overall, we did. There was a lot of unacceptable language and abusive behaviour. But beware, it’s a minority of the crowd. Not the majority. Most of the people here are true golf fans and respectful and allow both teams the same opportunity to hit and compete in a fair duel. However, there was a small group of people who behaved a bit differently from that,” Rory explained to the media.
In his way of controlling himself during the week, Rory admits he did everything possible although he didn’t always succeed. What makes him respond to some and not others. He explains: “Honestly, I would say it’s impulsive. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I’m quite impulsive, in case you haven’t noticed… Sometimes I take the bait and sometimes I hold back. But I don’t really choose it; it’s just sometimes yes and sometimes no.” He also joked about the massive police presence, with dogs included. “They should have let them off the leashes,” he said with a laugh, adding afterwards: “The police and security presence was crazy. Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be any physical fight or anything like that, except maybe Tommy and Rosey going up to the 16th tee yesterday…”, he joked again in reference to the incident with Bryson DeChambeau‘s caddie and the Californian player himself.
McIlroy regretted that much of that abusive behaviour was directed towards his family. At that point, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose intervened, highlighting the attitude and composure of Erica, McIlroy’s wife, who had a beer thrown at her and didn’t complain at any time. “I found out because I saw it in a video on social media, she didn’t even mention it in the locker room. That says a lot about Erica’s strength and everyone on this team,” Rose explained, to which Lowry added: “I was out there with Erica McIlroy for two days and the amount of abuse she received was astonishing. The way she supported her husband and her team was incredible. Hats off to her.”
McIlroy has been the focus of the anger of that small group of fans who decided to turn the Ryder Cup into a war against Rory with the sole aim of trying to unsettle him for the benefit of the United States. The Northern Irishman, however, doesn’t want any revenge, he is content with the immense satisfaction of victory. However, he leaves an interesting reflection, a message for the fans at Adare Manor in the next Ryder in 2027. “I don’t think we should ever accept that 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 bring people together. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you to play by the rules. It teaches you to respect people. Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this shouldn’t be acceptable in the Ryder Cup. We will make sure to tell our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable. Come and support your home team. Come and support your team. If I were an American player, I would be annoyed that people… I didn’t hear many cheers for Scottie Scheffler today, but I did hear many against me. It’s like: support your players. That’s what’s important.”
Rory admits he felt the strain of the whole week in the singles match against Scottie. “I felt like I was running on empty. I gave a lot of myself the first two days and did everything I could out there against Scottie. Neither of us had our best level. It was kind of a pillow fight, to be honest. I held on as much as I could. I made that putt on the 15th and just tried to stay in my own bubble as much as possible. Obviously, sometimes it was quite difficult. I knew that every hole I completed brought me a little closer to that goal we all had in mind and that was what was important. I’m very grateful to the vice-captains, to Luke and to everyone who was out there. Thomas Björn walked a lot with me today and kept encouraging me. He kept saying: ‘seven more holes, six more holes, five more holes.’ Knowing you have that support from the team means a lot, especially in an environment like that,” he pointed out.
And finally, the million-dollar question. Would you like to repeat a Ryder Cup in New York? “If the result were the same, absolutely.”
