Rory McIlroy wasn’t the only member of Team Europe who faced an onslaught of verbal abuse at the Ryder Cup.
The behavior of the Bethpage Black crowd became the lead story from Europe’s 15-13 win in New York, and things turned particularly ugly on Saturday as Europe extended its lead. McIlroy faced a wave of verbal insults, and his wife, Erica, dealt with what Shane Lowry called an “astonishing” level of abuse. But every member of Team Europe had to deal with the unruly New York crowd.
Two-time major champion went on GOLF’s Subpar Podcast and called Bethpage the toughest environment he has ever played golf in before detailing what he and his partners, Tyrrell Hatton and Sepp Straka, dealt with during the three-day event.
“It was rough. It was a tough week,” Rahm told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “With my group, so with me and Tyrrell and Sepp, right, all three of us rather overweight, two of them with a very far back hairline, and two of us being in LIV, all I heard was, ‘Traitor, Terrorist, Fat, Ozempic a lot, and Turkey and hairline appointment things.’ It’s not so much — of course, you’ve got the usual thing where they say something about your wife and your kids which is expected but over the line. It was more the fact that from the moment we got to the range it started until we left the golf course. Ten to 12 hours non-stop.”
Rahm noted that all athletes hear a certain level of abuse and heckling, but professional golfers’ proximity to the crowd makes it different. While Team Europe was prepared for a raucous New York crowd, they were not ready for what ultimately came their way.
“The other thing that I wasn’t ready for when I hit the opening tee shot 400 yards right, I wasn’t ready for it to keep going as we were taking the club back,” Rahm said. “We hit a lot of shots with them still talking, and that was the part was something we had to adjust to. That first hole, I told Tyrrell on the green, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going to hit a shot all tournament without it being rowdy.'”
Rahm believes the Bethpage crowd’s behavior helped make an already tightly-knit European team even closer. And, at a certain point, the insults Rahm, Hatton and Straka faced lost their impact.
“We all of us had a really fun way to look at it,” Rahm said. “Whenever they called us fat, especially me and Sepp, [we] would laugh. Like do you think we don’t own a mirror? I know. We know. We’re the ones eating. I get it. Let’s move on. It was less original than expected.”
Legion XIII’s captain got a lot of LIV hate from the New York crowd. When Rahm hit a wayward shot on the fifth hole, he had to venture into the gallery where a patron started to lay into him. But that fan ended up arguing with another fan about LIV.
“I had this guy in my ear calling me a traitor, terrorist, this and that,” Rahm said. “And first thing I want to say is I’m like, ‘Dude, a traitor to who? I’m not from this country, clearly.’ “After he said it enough times, there was a five-second pause, and there was a woman next to the guy that was grilling me who just goes, ‘Well, for that amount of money, I will do it too.’ And then they started arguing with themselves. They started having a conversation. They started arguing with themselves. I actually found it quite funny.”
You can listen to Rahm’s entire episode here or watch the YouTube video below.
