FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The arena at the first tee at the Ryder Cup historically has been a setting for good-natured revelry and singsong. But this year, the hulking 1st-tee/18th-hole grandstand here at Bethpage Black, which can house up to 3,500 fans, has not been immune to the foul-mouthed heckling that has sullied this edition of the hyper-charged biennial event.
From their perches overlooking the small city of corporate hospitality on 1, 18 and, beyond those holes, the par-3 17th, at least a few unhinged fans have used the occasion of the opening tee shots this week to skewer the Europeans. The cheap-shot barbs have come in the form of the unoriginal (i.e, “You suck!” and “A—hole, A—hole…” and the biting; on Friday morning, one heckler took a dig at a player’s wife.
Among the crowd’s favorite marks has been Europe’s best player, Rory McIlroy.
In the moments before McIlroy and Fleetwood’s Friday-morning foursomes match against Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, comedian Heather McMahan, who had been hired by the PGA of America this week to orchestrate first-tee cheers and otherwise get the U.S. faithful fired up, began leading a chant in support of DeChambeau.
“DEE-SHAM-BOW!” she boomed through her mic.
The crowd followed suit: “DEE-SHAM-BOW! “DEE-SHAM-BOW!”
But after six or seven refrains, a pocket of fans launched into a different, more salty, chant: “F— you, Rory! F— you, Rory!”, which quickly consumed the cries for DeChambeau. Even McMahan got in on the act, barking once into her mic: “F— you, Rory!” (A fan captured audio of the incident, which you can listen to here.)
There has been much talk this week about whether U.S. fans have crossed the line in their support of the American team. But that an official emcee for this event would also “go blue,” to use a term of the comedy trade, was stunning. The PGA of America seemed to think so, too.
On Saturday night, as first reported by Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, the PGA of America said in a statement that McMahan had “extended an apology to Rory Mcllroy and Ryder Cup Europe and has stepped down from hosting the first tee of the Ryder Cup.”
McMahan, 38, has a podcast called “Absolutely Not,” which its official description says is a “safe space for us to tell all and bitch about the rest. No topics are off limits.” McMahan appeared in the 2021 romantic comedy “Love Hard,” and has starred in comedy specials on Netflix and Hulu.
She did not immediately respond to GOLF.com’s request for comment.
When Rory McIlroy was asked Saturday evening about the verbal abuse he has endured over the course of his two matches, he said, “Yeah, it was a really challenging day. I’m going to sleep well tonight.”
European captain Luke Donald described the atmosphere as “raucous.” Asked whether he thought the U.S. fans crossed the line, he said, “What I consider crossing the line is personal insults and making sounds when they are trying to hit on their backswings or very close to when they are trying to go into their routines. That did happen a little bit. It’s happened at other Ryder Cups, too.”
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley described the fans as “passionate,” adding, “I wasn’t at Rome, but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well. But the fans of New York from what I have seen have been pretty good. You’re always going to have a few people that cross the line, and that’s unfortunate. I was happy to see our players trying to quiet down some people that were like that. Part of it is our fault. We are not playing up to the standards that they want to see, and they are angry, and they should be.”
