Team Europe were phenomenal on Saturday at the Ryder Cup to all-but seal an historic away victory in New York with the Sunday Singles still to go, but the day will largely be remembered for the ugly scenes in the crowd from spectators abusing Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.
Tensions boiled over particularly in the afternoon session, where State Troopers were brought out to help calm fans down, some of whom had been launching distasteful insults at the European pair all afternoon.
But anti-McIlroy chants had begun far earlier, with the entire 1st tee singing 'F*** you Rory' before play had even begun, and a video emerged of guest MC Heather McMahan, a comedian, encouraging the chants.
The PGA of America has confirmed that McMahan has apologized to McIlroy for joining in with the chants while on the microphone, with the organization confirming that she will not be part of proceedings on Sunday.
This is utterly disgraceful. Whoever this MC is, she should not be allowed near any PGA event again, let alone the #RyderCup. The PGA's silence on the matter is sickening.https://t.co/uaESdJ75kF pic.twitter.com/OXpsUm5Q6BSeptember 27, 2025
McIlroy and Lowry were seen confronting fans on numerous occasions on Saturday and were said to have had certain spectators thrown out.
The Masters champion, who has 3.5 points from his four matches, was also seen telling fans to "Shut the **** up" before hitting a shot and pointing at sections of the crowd while saying "F*** you" after holing a putt.
The scenes were undoubtedly ugly and the vile abuse and chanting let the Ryder Cup and Team USA down.
McIlroy and Lowry did not call out the fans in the post-game comments but made it clear that Saturday was a difficult day.
"Look, you know, when you play an away Ryder Cup, it's really, really challenging. It's not for me to say," McIlroy said.
"People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I'm just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through."
"Look, we knew what we were going to get coming here," Lowry said.
"It was a very tough day. Being out with Rory doesn't make it any easier. I think he's getting the brunt of it.
"But yeah, look, I think we dealt with it very well. You know, I said at the start of the week, I don't know what way I'm going to deal with it but I'm going to be myself and I was myself out there today and thankfully that worked."
