Xander Schauffele was one of the best players for the US Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black two weeks ago.
One of the big talking points at the Ryder Cup was the behavior of the US fans at Bethpage Black.
Now, Schauffele has said something that has proven Rory McIlroy exactly right.
The American ended the week at the Ryder Cup with a 3-1-0 record and his solid golf at Bethpage Black surprised many, given the form he came in with.
The 31-year-old PGA Tour star missed the start of the 2025 season through injury and didn’t return to action until March.
In fairness to him, he didn’t miss a single cut all year, but he failed to win and recorded only three top-10 finishes.
In spite of those struggles, he performed really well at the Ryder Cup. In fact, he was America’s best player, but he couldn’t prevent his team from losing out to Europe.
Schauffele said the European Ryder Cup team simply played better than the US side at Bethpage.
Before the start of the event, Schauffele was actually surprised by the quality of his play during practice rounds.
So perhaps the form he showed at Bethpage wasn’t entirely out of the blue. While the two-time major champion may have been happy with his own form, the same can’t be said for his feelings regarding the behavior from the US fans.
Xander Schauffele exposes another big problem with US fans at Bethpage Black
Schauffele made a great point during his press conference ahead of the Baycurrent Classic at Yokohama Country Club.
The world number four made comments about the fans during the Ryder Cup and in doing so, he proved McIlroy to be absolutely spot on.
The Northern Irishman spoke to reporters after losing to Scottie Scheffler in the Sunday singles at Bethpage.
He said: “I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie, but I heard a lot of shouts against me.“
“Support your players. The amount of security presence was insane. Nothing was going to happen, there wasn’t going to be a physical altercation but there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour.“
And now Schauffele has echoed McIlroy’s sentiment about the US Ryder Cup fans, when speaking to the media ahead of the Baycurrent Classic in Japan.
Schauffele explained: “It’s a tough thing. I’ve heard several things about a few of the things that were said. The guys I played with, Hovland and Bob the first day, or against, sorry, and then Jon and Sepp, I played Jon in individuals and then Jon and Tyrrell again I believe.
“Yeah, there were some unsavory things said at certain times. You know, I really wish we could have played better to have them cheer for us a bit more. New York’s a tough place to play for anyone. I even got a few comments to play better. I’m not taking much personally when it comes to sort of what fans say.“
Scottie Scheffler another example of poor support from US Ryder Cup fans
US fans trying to distract the European players rather than support their own team was a common problem throughout the week at Bethpage.
In fact, some US fans took it further and actually got on the backs of their own players.
One fan was heard shouting, ‘get your act together Scottie’, as the world number one struggled to replicate any semblance of the form which saw him dominate on the PGA Tour in 2025.
Schauffele’s comments about the Ryder Cup fans at Bethpage prove that it was a tough week for the American players, as well as the Europeans.
If Schauffele, with a 3-1-0 record, was receiving criticism at Bethpage Black, can you imagine what the likes of Collin Morikawa and Russell Henley had to put up with?
This is a problem that quite clearly needs to be addressed ahead of the 2029 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, if the US really do want to become dominant in the Ryder Cup on home soil once again.
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