Rory McIlroy has said the crowd at last year’s Ryder Cup was “by far” the worst he has experienced and believes U.S. captain Keegan Bradley “could have said something” to rein in the fans’ abuse.
Team Europe faced relentless heckling at Bethpage Black last September, but for talisman McIlroy it often went further — with some personal insults and jeers directed at his wife and family.
The visitors went on to clinch a historic win, with McIlroy, who at one stage told a fan to “shut the f— up” after one yelled during his pre-shot routine on Day 2, saying afterward: “I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf.”
In an appearance on “The Overlap” podcast with former Premier League footballers Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane, McIlroy reiterated his feelings on the crowd.
“Oh, by far [the worst crowd I’ve ever experienced],” McIlroy said.
“In 2016 we played the Ryder Cup in Minnesota, and I thought that was bad. But I compare this year to 2016, and 2016 was nothing compared to some of the stuff we heard.
“We knew going to New York that we were going to get a lot of stick, a lot of abuse. For six months right before the competition, everyone was saying it’s going to be hostile.
“I didn’t [think it would be as hostile as it was]. Look, I don’t care if people are saying whatever they’re saying to me, even the first tee announcers shouting: ‘f— you, Rory,’ which is nothing compared to the other stuff we heard.”
McIlroy said some of the chants he heard about his wife and daughter were “horrific.”
“Erica, my wife, would say she’s a grown woman, she’s strong, she can handle that,” he added. “But then when it starts to get into your family, I heard stuff about my daughter that I couldn’t even repeat here. It’s horrific.
“But I think it’s sort of society and culture at the minute as well. It’s that mob mentality where people see other people doing something and then they think it’s OK. And then it sort of builds up.
“There’s 50,000 people there, and all it takes is 500 of those to be bad eggs and then it skews the atmosphere.”
U.S. captain Bradley had been trying to rally the fans throughout the week, and refused to be drawn on their hostility during the tournament.
McIlroy feels Bradley could have done more.
“Keegan and I have talked about this,” McIlroy added. “You have to play into the home-field advantage, absolutely.
“But during the competition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the stuff that we heard on the course, there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the teammates to be like: ‘Let’s just calm down here. Let’s try to play this match in the right spirit.’
“Some of them did that, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week in being the captain. I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night, and he didn’t.”
However, McIlroy did say it “calmed down a bit” on the final day.
“In the Ryder Cup for the first two days, there’s 50,000 people on four holes,” he said. “It’s so tight and so packed in and so condensed. Then on Sunday there’s 12 matches, so the crowd is a little more dispersed around the golf course. It doesn’t really get into that mob mentality as much.
“It’s a great event for golf to have, because it’s the only time you have that real partisan feel. What we feel or what I feel as a football fan or what you felt when you were playing.
“That’s a rivalry and people really get into that. It’s the reason it’s probably the biggest tournament in golf.
“I would say winning as a team has a very different feeling to winning as an individual. You can celebrate it more.
“I’ve always said individual wins in my career are always going to be the proudest things that I’ve achieved or what I’m proudest of, but I’ve never had as much fun in my career as I’ve had at the Ryder Cup.
“That was my eighth Ryder Cup and it was definitely the best one by far.”
