Rory McIlroy was a key character at Bethpage Black last week, not only because he’s Europe’s best player and a recent Grand Slam winner, but because he was also the primary target of American fans’ relentless heckling.
McIlroy and his wife, Erica, received constant — sometimes vulgar — badgering from U.S. fans at the Ryder Cup, and McIlroy’s matches required extra uniformed security. A few times he had to step off shots, and in a handful of cases he snapped back at the hecklers.
At times, it was an ugly scene.
Late Sunday night, after Europe held off the Americans’ Sunday charge and won the Ryder Cup, McIlroy was asked if that kind of fan behavior was taking the game in a dangerous direction.
“I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,” he said. “Golf has the ability to you 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. … 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. 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.”
One former U.S. Ryder Cup captain, however, wasn’t a fan of McIlroy’s response.
Speaking on GOLF’s Subpar podcast at the conclusion of the Ryder Cup Sunday, Paul Azinger, who led the U.S. team to a Ryder Cup win at Valhalla in 2008, said McIlroy can’t have it both ways.
Azinger started by complimenting McIlroy for his role in rallying his team. He said when McIlroy said two years that winning a road Ryder Cup is one of the hardest things to do in golf, that essentially took pressure off his fellow players, which allowed them to arrive at Bethpage relaxed and with nothing to lose.
“I give Rory credit for that,” Azinger said, “but now I want to take a shot at Rory, who I love.”
Azinger said McIlroy “probably turned down $500 million” to join LIV Golf and has been a staunch PGA Tour loyalist, but he didn’t appreciate his thoughts on decorum given some of his own actions.
“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,” said Azinger, referring to one particular McIlroy celebration on one of the greens. “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.’
“And 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 OK? So 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.”
In the hours since the Ryder Cup concluded, much has been said and written about fan behavior and the response to it. But Azinger said no one should be surprised.
“Didn’t the PGA of America know when they came here what was going to happen?” he said. “Of course, we all knew. We’ve all been talking about it for 10 years, that this crowd could go crazy. Hey if the beers weren’t $16 a piece, it could have been worse.”
The Americans were blown out the first two days, as Europe grabbed a commanding 11.5-4.5 lead and — after the teams split a half point due to Viktor Hovland’s WD — needed just two points Sunday to retain the Cup. But the Americans fought back in Sunday singles and lost just 15-13. Europe was the first time to win on the road in more than a decade.
“I don’t know what happened in Europe’s team room but they almost let it get away,” Azinger said. “But they did the slaughtering the first two days. That was a tough pill to swallow. There was a time when I thought it was just going to be the most devastating defeat and the PGA of America was going to have to restructure everything. And it turned out not to be that way at all. It was actually a bit of a nail-biter.”
You can watch the entire Azinger appearance below.
