Rory McIlroy’s abuse from fans at the Ryder Cup was one of the biggest narratives at the event.
The grand slam winner endured constant heckles and abuse throughout the three days, including when he was about to play shots. That led to an iconic moment, where Rory McIlroy told a fan to shut up, before sticking his approach to four feet.
The crowd at Bethpage Black was one of the biggest draws to the 2025 Ryder Cup. New York fans are famed for their frenzied support and their toxicity towards visiting teams. But this environment was new to golf, and one McIlroy wasn’t comfortable with.
McIlroy called for golf to be held to a higher standard after the tournament. He said, “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 unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons, etiquette and how to play by the rules, how to respect people.
“And sometimes this week we did not see that. So, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027, what happened here this week is not acceptable.”
When the most famed active player in golf makes a statement like that, it demands a response. The PGA of America’s CEO revealed what he really thought about the New York crowd following McIlroy’s comments.
PGA of America CEO says there is ‘no place’ for Ryder Cup fan behavior
While the PGA of America and Team USA did everything they could to rile up the home fans and create a loud environment for their players, this went beyond anything they dared to fear.
When state troopers are being sent to the course in an effort to protect McIlroy and his playing partner, Shane Lowry, things might just have gotten out of hand.
Derek Sprague, CEO of the PGA of America, slammed the fans’ behavior on the Golf Channel. He said, “Certainly, it’s not the values of the PGA of America or 30,000+ PGA golf professionals who work every day in this game to bring joy and laughter and fun to golf.
“Certainly, we did not witness that. There is no place for it in the Ryder Cup or the game of golf. We certainly are not happy with what happened last week.”
That’s in contrast to what Don Rea, the PGA of America President, said earlier in the week. He told the BBC, “Well, you have 50,000 people there that are really excited and – heck – you can go to a youth soccer game and get some people who say the wrong things.
“It happened when we were in Rome on the other side and Rory understands… things like that are going to happen and I don’t know what was said. But all I know is golf the engine of good.”
There were no reports of abuse towards players of this nature from Rome, and Rea has faced significant backlash for his comments. Sprague’s comments are more positive, but perhaps the PGA of America should get on the same page with their post-event messaging.
Derek Sprague says the PGA of America acted ‘swiftly and efficiently’
When state troopers were sent to the course, tensions did cool somewhat. They followed McIlroy and Lowry around the back nine, and multiple fans were removed at the European duo’s request.
Sprague said the PGA of America acted “swiftly and efficiently” in response to the fan misbehavior. He continued, “We have been planning for a number of years going into this event, like we do all our major champions of planning with law enforcement and other security agencies. We certainly did that here for Bethpage.
“We knew the Ryder Cup is the biggest event in golf and transcends many sports. We worked closely with the New York State police, they were the lead agency. Then we had several layers of security, including private security companies to deal with the amount of fans, which is typical of a Ryder Cup.
“It’s not like we had any large increase in numbers or not. We worked with them with a plan, and like with any live sporting event, we made sure we adjusted as the days went on and we reacted to fan behaviour, including removing a number of fans from the event or moving them away from the players that they were being abusive to and heckling.
“So we dealt with it swiftly and efficiently as it was made known to us. It’s a big golf course out there and we had plenty of law enforcement with the players, both sides of the fairways and when you are looking at a large crowd it can be challenging to identify, but when they were, they were dealt with very quickly.”
They didn’t seem prepared for the level of abuse that fans brought to Bethpage Black, but their response to it was unequivocal. Hopefully, they have learned their lesson ahead of 2029 at Hazeltine.
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