A former U.S. Ryder Cup team captain sounded off on Rory McIlroy giving back some of what he got to profane New York fans at the Ryder Cup.
Paul Azinger, speaking Sunday evening on the Subpar podcast after Europe defeated the U.S. 15–13 in the Ryder Cup, credited the world No. 2 with taking pressure off his team coming into the week by saying that winning a road Ryder Cup was one of the hardest things to do in sports, given the hostile environment.
But he then took issue with McIlroy calling for better fan behavior in the victors’ press conference after McIlroy himself at times cursed back at fans.
In one instance during Friday morning’s foursomes, McIlroy backed off a shot to tell fans to “shut the f— up.” He then stuffed the shot in close to the pin, allowing he and teammate Tommy Fleetwood to close out their win over the U.S. team of Harris English and Collin Morikawa.
“[Sunday] in the press conference, after it’s over, he is saying that I think golf should be held to a higher standard of decorum. But in the meantime he says f— you, f— you, f— you in full voice for the world to see,” Azinger said.
“He turns around and says to the guy ‘shut the f— up.’ The guy in the media asks him how did that feel Rory, to tell him to shut up and then hit it to two feet. And he said ‘it felt pretty f’ing good.’
“I’m like, ‘which is it, Rory?’ Is it that golf is held to a higher standard or are you just going to f— you the fans and act that like that’s O.K.? I love Rory, but you can’t say that. You can’t say the fans need to behave better and then in the meantime lay them to waste. You can’t do both. You’ve got to be one or the other.”
But at the same time, the captain of the victorious 2008 Ryder Cup acknowledged what McIlroy (whose record was 3–1–1) went through over the weekend at Bethpage Black.
“It must have been terrible,” Azinger said. “But didn’t the PGA of America know when they came here what was going to happen? We all knew. We’ve all been talking about it for 10 years, that this crowd could go crazy. If the beers weren’t $16 a piece, it could have been worse.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former Ryder Cup Captain Rips Rory McIlroy's Behavior at Bethpage Black.
