IT is strictly not on to open one’s trap when a golfer is mid-backswing or leaning over a putt.
There are ways to desport oneself during play, like a good old chap, and raised voices and bad language are certainly not par for the course.
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But all that went out the clubhouse window at the Ryder Cup in New York this weekend, as Europe star Rory McIlroy might have thought he was among football hooligans, such was the abuse from fans.
On Saturday, as the Northern Irishman ran the gauntlet of boozed-up, baying team United States supporters dressed in stars and stripes, all kinds of insult were thrown at him — and a pint of beer at his wife.
The hate for five-time major champ Rory, 36, and New York-born wife Erica Stoll, 38, at this biennial event for the 12 top golfers from each of Europe and the US was so cruel she is said to have fled the course in tears at one point.
All of the Europe team had to put up with jeers from behind the roped barriers — and cheers when they missed a putt.
In scenes more akin to the worst excesses on the football terraces, than the clipped fairways of the Bethpage Black course on New York’s Long Island, armed police even had to be called in to haul fighting fans from the crowd.
But it was not just the supporters whose behaviour was as ugly as a hooked drive into the duck pond — even master of ceremonies Heather McMahan quit after joining in crowd chants of “F*** you, Rory!”
The abuse backfired on the hate brigade as team Europe held both lip and nerve to close out victory on the Sunday by 14½ points to 11½.
Afterwards, a clearly emotional Rory praised his wife for keeping her head held high.
The world No2 golfer told a press conference: “Erica is fine.
“She is a very, very strong woman.
“She handled everything this week with poise and dignity like she always has and I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”
The other European players also praised Erica for the way she handled the intimidation.
Irish star Shane Lowry — who sank the putt that meant Europe retained the silverware they also won in Rome in 2023 — said: “I was out there for two days with Erica and the abuse she received was astonishing.
“The way she was supporting her husband and her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.”
‘MARITAL TROUBLES’
As Europe’s No1 player, Rory was the boo-boys’ prime target — and he and Erica for their well publicised history of marital troubles.
The pair met at the 2012 Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois, at which Erica was an official tasked with escorting Rory to the course.
At the time, he was dating Danish tennis ace Caroline Wozniacki, who he got engaged to in late 2013 before the wedding was called off five months later.
Rory started seeing Erica in 2014 and they wed three years later.
Their apparently solid marriage seemed to have crashed in May last year when Rory announced they were getting divorced.
But a month later Rory, who has five-year-old daughter Poppy with Erica, said: “Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realised that our best future was as a family together.”
Sadly, though, the couple’s ups and downs were grist to the mill of those out to get them at Bethpage.
One spectator was overheard bawling, “How’s your divorce going?”, while another yelled at Rory, “Your ex is looking for you” and others called him “ugly.”
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Perhaps another reason why Rory came in for extra flak is because he wears his heart on his sleeve.
As crazed American fans at the weekend played foul with golf’s centuries-old etiquette, in a bid to put the European players off their game, Rory did his best not to take the bait but at one point, before taking a shot, did yell at the gallery: “Guys, shut the f*** up.”
Rory, whose resurgence in form since mending his marriage saw him win the coveted US Masters earlier this year, was demanding respect where respect is due.
Meanwhile his 16st teammate Lowry — who famously won the Open at Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland in 2019 — also faced cruel comments, about his body shape, and looked ready to snap.
Matters got so bad that secret service officers were deployed to guard Europe’s embattled team and police sent the worst, most drunken thugs packing in a bid to restore order.
I wish they had let the dogs off their leashes
Rory McIlroy
Rory later quipped: “I wish they had let the dogs off their leashes.”
There were plenty of fist-pumping celebration from team Europe, as they finally took the spoils, but their equal triumph was not to have sunk to the depths of those who tried at every fairway, bunker and green to drag them down.
Team captain Luke Donald encouraged his players to turn the other cheek by happily signing autographs for fans, and chatting and smiling.
This was in contrast to US captain Keegan Bradley who grabbed an American flag and ran up the 18th fairway during a practice round on Thursday, to fire up the home crowd before the matches began.
As battle then got under way, US player Bryson DeChambeau strode up to the first tee draped in the stars and stripes.
US President Donald Trump’s visit on the first day of competition, and the sight of him pumping his fist, only stirred the cauldron further.
The Ryder Cup tradition began in 1927 as a friendly contest pitching the best golfers from Great Britain and Ireland against those from the United States.
With the Americans all too often outpunching us Brits, from 1979 we called in our European friends to other European nations were from 1979 roped in to join the British and Irish ones.
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After that Europe dominated, but this year the US were favourites because seven out of the ten top golfers in the world come from their side of the Atlantic.
So it was a shock that the Americans were so heavily beaten on the first two days, with Europe heading into the final day with a record seven point advantage.
‘SUPPORT YOUR PLAYERS’
Somehow, the US made a match of it, almost storming to the biggest Ryder Cup comeback of all time.
In the end, though, Europe secured the two and half points they needed for victory.
The US team weren’t helped by their own supporters, who often preferred to jeer the Europeans rather than cheer their own side.
After playing world No1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory said: “I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed.
“I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me.
“Support your players. That’s the thing.”
It isn’t the first time that the behaviour of American fans have come under the microscope.
English golfer Matt Fitzpatrick revealed that his parents stayed away from the Ryder Cup this year because during the previous tournament held on US soil in 2021 they’d heard fans shout “slit his throat.”
Shane told how his wife Wendy and dad Brendan had also been verbally abused four years ago, with him commenting “they got dog’s abuse coming around” the course at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
One of the lowest moments was when the US team invaded the 17th green in 1999 at Brookline in Massachusetts when the Europeans still had to play.
At the same competition Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie received such terrible chants comparing him to Mrs Doubtfire that his dad left.
The reputation of the American fans was so bad that in 2016, PJ Willett, the brother of English golfer Danny, wrote an article calling them “pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer.”
We’ve got passionate fans out here. Their fans are loud, too
Keegan Bradley
This year’s US captain Keegan tried to downplay the controversy.
He commented: “We’ve got passionate fans out here.
“Their fans are loud, too.”
But American golf reporters felt a line had been crossed.
Player turned commentator Rich Beem called the behaviour of fans “horrendous”, NBC broadcaster Johnson Wagner described it as “horrific” and Joel Beall from Golf Digest wrote “what is being yelled at Rory and Shane right now is some of the worst behaviour I’ve ever seen.”
The only thing that shut them up was the thought of defeat.
Even before the Europeans had won the trophy, the locals were seen streaming out of the grandstands.
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MAYHEM TAINTED VICTORY
I FOLLOWED Rory McIlroy round the course at the Ryder Cup – and have never seen anything like it in all my years watching the gentleman’s game.
It was mayhem, with more security drafted in than for a G20 summit.
Abusive Americans shouting horrific, personal insults at our European heroes.
Thugs fighting in the stands, like drunken yobs on a Friday night outside the pub.
Armed cops, police dogs, lines of State Troopers – it was truly the Battle of Bethpage Black.
McIlroy and Co shut the yelling Yanks up with Europe’s victory, and the worst of the hate mob were thrown off the course.
And Rory and wife Erica, who were on the brink of divorce last year, looked more loved-up then ever as he praised the way she dealt with the abused aimed at them both.
