FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The fears that a boisterous crowd would cross the line of decorum at the Ryder Cup was an unfortunate storyline at Bethpage Black, where compelling golf took over on Sunday as Europe held off a furious United States rally for a 15–13 victory.
Once again, Rory McIlroy was the target of relentless heckling, some of which can be expected at the Ryder Cup but some that also crossed into unacceptable behavior, especially Saturday.
So bad was the abuse that extra security personnel had to be summoned. Video came to light on Sunday of a spectator tossing a beer onto McIlroy’s wife, Erica. Shane Lowry, who played with McIlroy on Saturday—and clinched the Ryder Cup for Europe with his birdie on the 18th—also was subjected to relentless vulgarity.
🚨🤦🏻♂️🍺 #NEW ANGLE — A fan at Bethpage Black chucks a beer at Rory McIlroy’s wife Erica yesterday afternoon.
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) September 28, 2025
(Via @dylan_dethier) pic.twitter.com/pmsm4HDo6M
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing and the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that,” Lowry said.
McIlroy has repeatedly said he understands that part of an away Ryder Cup is dealing with excessive fan interaction. And most agree that aggressive cheering for the home team is fine. It’s when it gets personal, filled with profanity, that a line is crossed.
“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” McIlroy said. “I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week. Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. 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. But you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 [at Adare Manor] that what happened here this week is not acceptable, and for me, it’s you come and support your home team.
“I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people—I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.
“Look, it was a rough week for all of us. 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.”
McIlroy noted that he never felt threatened physically.
“The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane,” he said. “Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be physical altercation or anything like that apart from maybe Tommy and Rosey up to the 16th tee yesterday.
“But there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behavior. It’s a minority of the crowd. It’s not the majority. The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest.”
The Americans’ Performance Contributed to the Poor Behavior
Justin Thomas, who played with Cam Young on Saturday and was part of the match that saw McIlroy and Lowry peppered with abuse, admitted that the lack of success for the Americans contributed to the behavior.
“I think that anybody that was out there could pretty blatantly tell you that there was some things said to Shane and Rory yesterday that we felt for them. It was unfortunate,” Thomas said.
“Cam and I just wished that we gave them something to cheer for instead of people to cheer against. I think that was kind of the main consensus of the last two days, that we weren’t giving them enough to cheer for, and they were just trying to help us win.
“I guess that’s the New York fans for you.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Offers Strong Rebuke to Ryder Cup Fan Behavior at Bethpage Black.
