The European Ryder Cup team is headed to Bethpage Black for a couple of days of practice but Rory McIlroy said the team is also armed with a bit of gadgetry that is meant to help them deal with the potential for unruly fans.
McIlroy, who tied for 20th on Sunday at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, disclosed after the round that captain Luke Donald had given each member of the team virtual-reality headsets that allow them to visualize the course while also simulating fan reaction.
The headsets allow the players to adjust the level of abuse they might hear during the matches, which begin Sept. 26.
“It simulates the sights and sounds and noise,” McIlroy told reporters after the final round at Wentworth. “That’s the stuff that we are going to have to deal with, so it’s better to try to desensitize yourself as much as possible before you get in there.
“You can get them to say whatever you want them to say—you can go as close to the bone as you like. They said, ‘how far to you want this to go?’ and I said, ‘go as far as you want.’”
McIlroy said “you don’t want to know” what he had put into his device and said it was “not for publication.”
The reigning Masters champion who will be playing in his eighth Ryder Cup was the subject of considerable abuse at the 2016 event at Hazeltine, leading at one point to the ejection of a spectator.
In 2021 at Whistling Straits, Shane Lowry’s wife endured considerable verbal abuse, leading to fears that the situation could become troublesome on Long Island.
Donald has made it a point to get his players used to the idea of being heckled, something that is unusual in golf but not at the Ryder Cup. Earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, at an event called the Team Cup with players competing in a Ryder Cup-like format, Donald employed a comedian who attempted to heckle various players.
There were 11 members of the European team that participated in the Wentworth event, with only Sepp Straka skipping. He is expected to join the rest of his teammates for two days of practice at Bethpage on Monday and Tuesday. The team is not expected to go back to Europe before the Ryder Cup, instead staying in the area and perhaps playing some of the other courses on Long Island. McIlroy said he will not return to his home in Florida.
McIlroy shot a final-round 65 at Wentworth, where Alex Noren won his second event in three weeks. The Swede will be one of Donald’s vice captains at Bethpage.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as How the European Ryder Cup Team Is Going High-Tech to Prepare for New York Fans.
