Rory McIlroy wasn’t the only member of Team Europe to be the victim of verbal abuse during the Ryder Cup.
THE Bethpage behavior Black crowd became the main event of Europe’s 15-13 victory in New York, and things got particularly bad on Saturday as Europe increased its lead. McIlroy faces a wave of verbal insultsand his wife, Erica, faced this Shane Lowry called it ‘astonishing’ level of abuse. But each member of Team Europe had to face an unruly New York public.
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The two-time major champion continued GOLF Mediocre podcast and called Bethpage the toughest environment he has ever played golf in before detailing what he and his partners, Tyrrell Hatton and Sepp Straka, faced during the three-day event.
“It was tough. It was a tough week,” Rahm told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “With my group, so with me, Tyrrell and Sepp, right, the three of us pretty overweight, two of them with very distant hairlines, and two of us being in LIV, all I heard was, ‘Traitor, Terrorist, Fat, Ozempic a lot, and Turkey and hairline dates.’ It’s not so much – of course you have the usual thing where they say something about your wife and kids, which is expected but crosses the line. It was more the fact that from the time we arrived at the range it started until we left the golf course. Ten to twelve hours non-stop.
Rahm noted that all athletes hear some level of insults and heckling, but that professional golfers’ proximity to the crowd makes things different. While Team Europe was prepared to face a raucous crowd in New York, they were not prepared for what ultimately happened to them.
“The other thing I wasn’t ready for when I hit the opening tee shot 400 yards right, I wasn’t ready for that to continue as we took the club back,” Rahm said. “We hit a lot of shots while they were still talking, and that’s what we had to adjust to. That first hole, I said to Tyrrell on the green, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going to hit a shot the whole tournament without it being rowdy.'”
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Rahm believes the behavior of the Bethpage crowd contributed to European team already very united, even closer. And, at some point, the insults suffered by Rahm, Hatton and Straka lost their impact.
“We all had a really funny way of looking at things,” Rahm said. “Every time they called us fat, especially me and Sepp, (we) laughed. Like, do you think we don’t have a mirror? I know. We know. We’re the ones eating. I understand. Let’s move on. It was less original than expected.”
Legion Captain XIII garnered a lot of hate towards LIV from the New York crowd. When Rahm hit a wayward shot on the fifth hole, he had to venture into the gallery where a customer started falling on him. But this fan ended up arguing with another fan about LIV.
“I had this guy in my ear calling me a traitor, a terrorist, this and that,” Rahm said. “And the first thing I want to say is I’m like, ‘Dude, a traitor to who? I’m clearly not from this country.’ “After I repeated it enough times, there was a five-second pause, and there was a woman next to the guy grilling me who just said, ‘Well, for that amount of money, I’ll do it too.’ And then they started arguing among themselves. They started to have a conversation. They started arguing among themselves. I actually found it quite funny.
You can listen Rahm’s entire episode here or watch the YouTube video below.
The position ‘Traitor’: Jon Rahm details wave of Ryder Cup abuse he faced at Bethpage Black appeared first on Golf.
