Entering the 2025 Ryder Cup, the dominant storyline was that the New York crowd would be the biggest and noisy they’ve ever seen. That hostile environment was supposed to lead Americans to victory, but by the end of Saturday’s session things had deviated to the unacceptable.
Inactive performances from US teams have steadily shifted the crowd from supporting American players to targeting Europeans. More specifically, they were targeting European leader Rory McIlroy. There have been some incidents throughout the week, but things reached a boiling point when McIlroy had to go down again and again on a Saturday afternoon, so when fans had to cross the line both when they said what they said.
“I don’t think we should accept that in golf. I think golf should be kept to a higher standard than what we’ve seen this week,” McIlroy said on the Sunday night after the European victory. “Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play with the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.
“I didn’t see that sometimes this week,” McIlroy continued. “So this shouldn’t be acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But I’ll make sure I’ll tell Irish fans in 2027 that what happened this week is unacceptable.”
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By the time McIlroy and Shane Lowry reached the nine backs of the match between Justin Thomas and Cameron Young, dozens of state troopers and police lined up on the ropes. It was a surreal scene from a golf event, but it never really addressed the issue.
“They wanted to keep their dogs off the leash. The amount of police and security presence there was insane,” McIlroy said. “Look, nothing happened. Yesterday there was no physical altercation or anything like that other than Tommy and Varie, up until the 16th Tee. There was a lot of language of unacceptable abusive behavior.
“And look, it’s a small crowd. It’s not a majority,” McIlroy certainly added. “Most of the people here are genuine golf fans and respectful, giving them the same opportunity for both teams to hit shots and have fair contests. But there was a small subset that behaved a little differently.”
Among the targets of the abuse was McIlroy’s wife Erica, who was walking with the group. At one point after Saturday’s round, fans threw a beer at McIlroy’s, who had cut out Erica’s hat, nearly causing a much bigger event.
“It should be off limits, but obviously this week,” McIlroy said when asked about fans targeting the players’ families and beer thrown at Erica. “Erica is fine. She is a very strong woman. She handled everything this week with her usual class and calmness and dignity. I will love her and have a great time celebrating tonight.”
“I was there for two days with Erica McIlroy and the amount of abuse she suffered was amazing,” added Laurie. “And the way she supports her husband and her team is incredible and that’s why she was praised by her.”
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McIlroy’s biggest point was that the atmosphere on the course shifted from supporting Americans to targeting Europeans, especially when the US team went down. Early Saturday morning it was clear that the main chant for the first tee was “f —You, Rory.”
“For me, it’s – you know, support your home team. Support your team,” McIlroy said. “If I were American, I think I would be annoyed by people – I didn’t hear a lot of screams for Scotty today, but I heard a lot of screams at me.
“Look, it was a tough week for all of us, but at the same time, we silence them by our performance and how we played,” McIlroy concluded. “And we got to me a few times so I chirp back a few times — but we tried to handle all of our methods with class and calmness, and I felt like I did it.”
McIlroy was clearly mentally exhausted by the end of the week. Still, he delivered a considerable moment this week in the face of an increasingly hostile crowd, including No. 16’s dagger approach in his game Saturday morning.
Before that shot, he had to back the ball and tell the fans to “close the F–up.” When asked how satisfying he felt to deliver that line to the fans and winning the match by hardening the iron, McIlroy responded briefly.
“Very f–satisfactory.”
