FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Erica McIlroy often maintains a low profile at golf tournaments — sometimes electing to avoid the course or, if she does visit, often wears a hat. But at the Ryder Cup, that gets tricky. Wives and girlfriends take on a much bigger role in the proceedings and often follow the matches of their husbands inside the ropes, right where everyone is looking. And in the case of this Ryder Cup, where everyone was shouting.
Unfortunately for Erica, Rory McIlroy became the center of significant scorn from major portions of the home crowd at Bethpage Black, making her a natural secondary subject often located not far away. On Saturday evening, in the aftermath of Rory’s fourth match of the Cup, a drink was even cast in the air in her direction, skimming her straw hat and spilling some of the liquid on her. (You can watch the video here, captured by GOLF.com’s Dylan Dethier.)
The fallout of that spilled into Sunday, too, as Rory still had one more match to play, against Scottie Scheffler, and the weeklong abuse didn’t stop. This Ryder Cup seemed to revolve around him, for months of the lead-up and then even in the early morning chants from American fans. “F—k you Rory,” became such a popular phrase that an official event emcee even resigned her duties and apologized for joining in on it.
Rory persevered in a mostly successful fashion, winning three matches and tying another. But it wasn’t until Sunday night, after Europe had finally claimed the Cup, that he was asked on the record about what he and Erica faced this week.
What was your view of that situation, he was asked, and the direction of this event as a whole with that in mind — families inside the ropes?
“It should be off-limits,” McIlroy responded, “but obviously it wasn’t this week.
“Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman. You know, she handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”
This came during the full, 13-man press conference for Team Europe, during which McIlroy received plenty of questions. But before anyone could move on, it was Justin Rose who felt obligated to step in.
“Can I just pick up on that, if you don’t mind,” Rose said, “because I actually had no idea that Erica had a beer thrown at her yesterday, so fair play to Erica. She didn’t bring that to the team room. We didn’t make that a big deal. That’s news to me. That says a lot about the strength of Erica and everybody on this team.”
Shane Lowry spoke next. He was the one paired with McIlroy in the session preceding that incident, as well as the fourball session Friday afternoon when it became clear Europe was dominating and the American fans would have no problem berating them.
