Win or lose, the Ryder Cup is a tradition and highlights the best golfers from both the United States and Europe. This year, at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Farmingdale, New York, Team Europe secured a dramatic 15-13 victory, holding off a fierce U.S. comeback on Sunday. Team Europe’s Shane Lowry’s crucial half-point secured the overall win for Europe, who had dominated the earlier sessions to build a commanding lead. The win marked Europe’s first Ryder Cup victory on U.S. soil since 2012 and their ninth in the last 12 competitions.
We lost, but what happened to losing gracefully? Golf fan etiquette emphasizes respect for the players, the game and other spectators by remaining quiet and still during shots, turning off cellphones and other electronic devices and staying in designated areas. A good fan cheers for good shots and offers encouragement after mistakes, but never ridicules or mock a player’s misfortunes. Using these unwritten rules as a baseline for good behavior, Team U.S. fans did nothing short of bringing shame to our country on a national level, with the taunting of players from Team Europe at every opportunity and failing to show an ounce of decorum. If you want to be raucous and rowdy, go to a football game, because golf isn’t the sport for you.
From Sept. 26-28, no one had to deal with more abuse from the spectators than Rory McIlroy. McIlroy, one of only seven grand slam winners in golf history, faced profane chants and abusive behavior from U.S. fans at the Ryder Cup. The ridicule didn’t stop at verbal abuse toward him either. At one point on Saturday, a cup of beer sailed out of the crowd and hit the brim of McIlroy’s wife’s hat, as she was walking alongside her husband.
Don Rea, president of the PGA of America, initially compared the behavior of Ryder Cup fans at Bethpage Black to parents at a youth soccer game, saying, “Well, you have 50,000 people there that are really excited, and heck, you can go to a youth soccer game and get some people who say the wrong things.” Rea seemed to make light of the situation before switching his tune later on in the week. According to a report by the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson, Rea sent a letter to PGA of America members acknowledging the inappropriate behavior and expressing regret. “Let me begin with what we must own. While the competition was spirited — especially with the U.S. team’s rally on Sunday afternoon — some fan behavior clearly crossed the line,” Rea wrote. “It was disrespectful, inappropriate, and not representative of who we are as the PGA of America or as PGA of America golf professionals. We condemn that behavior unequivocally.” Big words for someone who said nothing while it was going on.
The verbal abuse wasn’t restricted to just the fans. The event’s master of ceremonies, Heather McMahan, even stepped down and apologized after leading the fans in a chant of “f**k you, Rory” with a live microphone. She has since apologized in a statement made on her “Absolutely Not” podcast, saying she did not start the chant and only participated in it once. Seems too little too late. If you’re going to apologize and make every excuse you can, don’t join the chant in the first place. It’s disrespectful to the game.
When asked about the language used by American fans towards European players, Team Europe’s Tyrrell Hatton said, “I would much prefer it to be a respectful atmosphere. You let the guys play and the best team wins, rather than trying to affect the outcome by trying to put off players or things like that. But I don’t think it will be as hostile as maybe it was last week. I’d like to think that it will be very respectful.”
If you need to tamper with the playing conditions to get the win, you don’t deserve it. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t want Team U.S. to come out on top, of course I was rooting for them, but watching how we represented ourselves in front of the world made me sick. All that the taunting and yelling only made us look unpleasant, uncivilized, reproachable and, frankly, second-class.
