Entering the 2025 Ryder Cup, the dominant storyline was how the New York crowd would be the biggest and loudest the event has ever seen. That hostile environment was supposed to lift the Americans to a victory, but by the end of Saturday’s sessions, things had devolved into something unacceptable.
The lackluster performance from the United States team caused the crowd to steadily shift from supporting the American players to targeting the Europeans. More specifically, they were targeting Europe’s leader, Rory McIlroy. There were a handful of incidents throughout the week, but things reached a boiling point on Saturday afternoon when McIlroy had to step off a number of times as fans crossed the line both with what they said and when they said it.
“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,” McIlroy said on Sunday night after Europe’s 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 by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.
“Sometimes this week we didn’t see that,” McIlroy continued. “So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But, you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable.”
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By the time McIlroy and Shane Lowry reached the back nine of their match with Justin Thomas and Cameron Young, the ropes were lined with dozens of state troopers and police. It was a surreal scene for a golf event but never truly addressed the issues.
“I wish they had let the dogs off the leashes. The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane,” McIlroy said. “Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be physical altercation or anything like that apart from maybe Tommy and Rosey up to the 16th tee yesterday. There was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behavior.
“And, look, it’s a minority of the crowd. It’s not the majority,” McIlroy was sure to add. “The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest. But, you know, there was a small subset of people that behaved a little bit differently than that.”
Among the targets of that abuse was McIlroy’s wife, Erica, who was walking with the group. At one point after Saturday’s round, a fan threw a beer at the McIlroys that clipped Erica’s hat and nearly sparked a much bigger incident.
“It should be off limits, but obviously it wasn’t this week,” McIlroy said when asked about fans taking aim at players’ families and the beer thrown at Erica. “Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman. You know, she handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing,” Lowry added. “And the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.”
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McIlroy’s biggest point was that, especially once the U.S. team went down, the vibe on the course shifted from supporting the Americans to targeting the Europeans. That was evident early Saturday morning when the predominant chant on the first tee was “F— you, Rory” — with the PA announcer even saying it over the microphone and later resigning from that job.
“For me, it’s — you know, come and support your home team. Come and support your team,” McIlroy said. “I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people — I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.
“Look, it was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played,” McIlroy concluded. “And we tried to — I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times — but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that.”
McIlroy was clearly mentally exhausted by the end of the week, noting he didn’t have much left in the tank for his match with Scottie Scheffler on Sunday. Still, he delivered his fair share of moments this week in the face of that increasingly hostile crowd, including the dagger approach on No. 16 in his match on Saturday morning.
Prior to that shot, he had to back off the ball and tell a fan to “shut the f— up.” When asked how satisfying it feels to deliver that line to a fan and then stiff an iron to win the match, McIlroy had a simple response.
“Very f—ing satisfying.”