Rory McIlroy claims United States captain Keegan Bradley could have used his platform to rein in abusive crowd behaviour at last year’s Ryder Cup, but did not take the opportunity.
Europe defeated the US 15-13 at Bethpage Black to retain the trophy and become the first away team to win the event since 2012.
Yet they did so in the face of relentless heckling in New York, with Northern Ireland golfer McIlroy’s wife Erica hit by a drink thrown by an American fan and “horrific” abuse directed towards them both and their young daughter Poppy.
“We knew going to New York that we were going to get a lot of stick, a lot of abuse,” said McIlroy, while appearing on The Overlap., external
“Look, I don’t care if people are saying whatever they’re saying to me.”
McIlroy said he was able to brush off a Bethpage MC joining in with an expletive-led abusive chant about him, while she warmed up the crowd, saying that was “nothing compared to the other stuff we heard”.
“Erica, my wife, would say she’s a grown woman, she’s strong, she can handle that. 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,” McIlroy said.
The world number two added: “Keegan and I have talked about this. 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 team-mates 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.”
Normally adored by American fans on the PGA Tour, Europe’s talisman McIlroy bore the brunt of the barbs as abuse began to fly on Friday and Saturday with Luke Donald’s team opening up a seven-point lead.
The crowd’s behaviour drew comparisons with the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline and the hostile atmosphere of Hazeltine in 2016.
However, McIlroy, 36, who ended up swearing at a spectator during Saturday’s foursomes, said the crowd’s conduct was “by far” the worst he has experienced.
“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,” he added.
“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.
“In the Ryder Cup for the first two days, there’s 50,000 people on four holes. It’s so tight and so packed in and so condensed. In fairness, Sunday was a little bit better, there’s 12 matches, so the crowd is a little more dispersed around the golf course.
“It’s a great event for golf to have, because it’s the only time you have that real partisan feel. That’s a rivalry and people really get into that. It’s the reason it’s probably the biggest tournament in golf.”
