Rory McIlroy knows he got the last laugh.
He’s leaving Bethpage Black with the Ryder Cup in hand, after all.
But the way the fans treated him and the rest of the European team during their 15-13 win over the U.S. team on Long Island this past week, he said on Sunday night, more than crossed the line.
“I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,” McIlroy said. “Golf has the ability to unite people … It teaches you how to respect people. Sometimes this week, we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup.”
While fans are expected to be much rowdier at a Ryder Cup than they would be at a traditional PGA Tour event, for example, there were several clear instances this past weekend on Long Island where fans appeared to take things too far.
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McIlroy had to repeatedly step away from his ball during his match with Shane Lowry on Saturday afternoon as people shouted obscenities and insults his way, and Justin Thomas was constantly having to put his hands up to try and quiet the crowd. As their group made the turn, plenty of police officers actually showed up to start to reign in the crowd. Some people were ejected from the crowd, too, and the PGA of America started flashing behavior warning signs on their scoreboards.
It didn’t just stop there. The targeting of European players continued constantly through the weekend. At one point on Saturday, a fan even launched a drink at McIlroy and his wife, Erica.
“Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman,” McIlroy said on Sunday. “You know, she handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has.”
It was apparently more than just the one beer, too.
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing,” Lowry said.
On Sunday morning, from her role as the event’s emcee after she joined in with the crowd that was chanting, “F**k you, Rory!” over the course microphone.
Though the constant chatter made the golf difficult, McIlroy said he never felt like his physical safety was ever really in danger.
“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 … There was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behavior.”
But, like McIlroy noted, they came out on top. The Europeans entered Sunday needing just two points to retain the cup, and they fended off the American push to sneak out with the 15-13 win. It marked their first win on American soil since 2012, and their ninth victory in the last 12 outings.
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“Look, it was a rough week for all of us,” he said. “But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played, 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.”
As for the one moment where McIlroy truly snapped back at a fan earlier in the week — he whipped his head around on Friday and told a fan to “Shut the f**k up!” after they were chirping at him — McIlroy was happy when it was brought up on Sunday night.
“[It was] very f***ing satisfying,” he said.
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