Fifty-one weeks ago, there was a Ryder Cup press conference much like the ones we just watched. It featured Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald, both acknowledging the potential for a rowdy Cup to come.
Both, it must be noted, clarified that the PGA of America had assured them “precautions” were in place to maintain an orderly event and to keep tensions between players and fans from boiling over.
Well, one year on from that press conference, the CEO of the PGA, Derek Sprague has acknowledged that they didn’t succeed in doing so. In an interview with Brody Miller of The Athletic, Sprague admitted, “I’m the CEO now. I don’t condone this type of behavior. This is not good for the game of golf. It’s not good for the Ryder Cup. It’s not good for any of the professional athletes, and we will do better.”
Sprague mentioned that he wrote a lengthy note to both Rory McIlroy and his wife, Erica — who together seemed to receive the brunt of the verbal abuse — and apologized to McIlroy’s agent, Sean O’Flaherty. Overall, Sprague said he was simply, “really, really, really disappointed.”
The Bethpage Ryder Cup will now live on in a bit of infamy after Europe withstood barrages of verbal attacks to beat the Americans 15-13. When an emcee of the event has to resign her duties for taking part in a “f—k you, Rory” chant, things have clearly escalated.
The worst of it took place Saturday afternoon, during a fourball match where McIlroy paired up with Shane Lowry. Lowry — as well as McIlroy’s caddie, Harry Diamond — regularly scanned the crowd for spectators crossing the theoretical line with unsavory messages. All manner of things were hurled at McIlroy and Lowry, so much that it became a talking point for both players in the post-victory press conference.
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy,” Lowry said, “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.”
One of the lasting images of this Cup will forever be the beer cup cast at Erica McIlroy from outside the ropes, a reminder that, particularly during these team events, there is little more than a single weave of nylon separating the families of players and unhappy spectators.
Sprague conducted a similar interview with Rex Hoggard of Golf Channel, but his comments came in the wake of another PGA executive downplaying the issue. During an interview with BBC Sport on Sunday, PGA president Don Rea claimed he had not heard “much” of the abuse McIlroy was receiving, adding, “Things like that are going to happen and I don’t know what was said. But all I know is golf the engine of good.”
There’s a lot you can say about the fans at Bethpage — but I think it’s worth starting at the source.
— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) September 30, 2025
When the leader of your org says he hasn’t heard much verbal abuse of Rory McIlroy, perhaps there wasn’t much care about it happening pic.twitter.com/qPYGl7Pcr7
Sprague told The Athletic that PGA operations included ejecting some fans from the grounds, or simply moving them to other matches. Security doubled in size from the front nine to the back nine of that fateful fourball match, but with an increasing American deficit, it may have been too late.
As for what changes need to be made, Sprague has about four years to make them. The next Ryder Cup in America will be hosted at Hazeltine in 2029.
“We will make sure that we focus on what the Ryder Cup is all about,” Sprague told The Athletic. “It’s about decorum and sportsmanship and integrity. The game has the highest values in all of sports, and we need to sort of have a guiding light to focus on from both sides of every match.”
