Rory McIlroy says US captain Keegan Bradley could have used his platform to curb abusive crowd behavior at last year’s Ryder Cup, but he failed to seize the opportunity.
Europe defeated the USA 15-13 at Bethpage Black to retain the trophy and become the first away team to win the event since 2012.
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Yet they did it in the face of incessant ruckus in New York, with Erica, the wife of Northern Irish golfer McIlroy. hit by a glass thrown by an American fan and “horrific” abuse directed at them both as well as their young daughter Poppy.
“We knew going to New York we were going to take a lot of beating and abuse,” McIlroy said during his appearance on The overlap.
McIlroy said he managed to fend off a Bethpage MC who joined in with an insulting chant about him while she warmed up the crowd, saying it was “nothing compared to the other things we’ve heard.”
“Look, I don’t care if people say what they say to me,” McIlroy said.
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“Erica, my wife, would say she’s a grown woman, she’s strong, she can handle this. But when it starts to take over your family, I’ve heard things about my daughter that I couldn’t even repeat here. It’s horrible.”
He believes Bradley could have made the difference in preventing fans from creating a toxic atmosphere for the visiting team.
The world number two added: “Keegan and I have talked about it. You definitely have to play on home advantage.
“But during the competition Friday night and Saturday night, after what we heard on the course, Keegan or some of his teammates had the opportunity to say, ‘Let’s calm down here. Let’s try to play this game in the right spirit.’
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“Some of them did, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week as captain. I feel like he could have said something that Friday or Saturday night, and he didn’t.”
Normally adored by American fans on the PGA Tour, European talisman McIlroy bore the brunt of the insults as the abuse began to fly on Friday and Saturday, with Luke Donald’s team opening a seven-point lead.
The crowd’s behavior drew comparisons to the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline and the hostile atmosphere at Hazeltine in 2016.
However, McIlroy, 36, who ended up swearing at a spectator during Saturday’s foursomes, said the crowd’s behavior was “by far” the worst he had experienced.
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“In 2016 we played the Ryder Cup in Minnesota, and I thought it was bad. But I compare this year to 2016, and 2016 was nothing compared to some of the things we heard,” he added.
“I think it’s also kind of the society and culture of the moment. It’s this mob mentality where people see other people doing something and then they think it’s OK. And then it just kind of builds itself.
“There are 50,000 people there, and it only takes 500 of them to be bad eggs and that distorts the atmosphere.
“At the Ryder Cup, the first two days there are 50,000 people on four holes. It’s so tight, so packed and so condensed. In all honesty, Sunday was a little better, there are 12 matches, so the crowd is a little more spread out around the golf course.
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“It’s a great event for golf because it’s the only time there’s a real partisan feeling. It’s a rivalry and people really get involved in it. That’s why it’s probably the biggest tournament in golf.”
