\t\t\t\tThe impact of the horrific fan abuse at the Ryder Cup has had a lasting impact on one of golf\u2019s most beloved voices.<\/p>\n
The scenes outside the ropes at last year\u2019s Ryder Cup<\/a> were so unedifying that one of the game\u2019s great narrators considered stepping away from the mic for good. <\/p>\n Ewen Murray, the legendary golf commentator at Sky Sports, was among those on the Bethpage grounds mortified by the venomous abuse directed at European players and their families<\/a>. <\/p>\n The incredible 15-13 victory last September \u2013 Europe\u2019s first on away soil since the Miracle of Medinah \u2013 was tinged by an atmosphere so hostile that police troopers were drafted in to line the fairways and protect players. On a fraught weekend on Long Island, Rory McIlroy was the chief target of the bile, while his wife Erica struck by a drinks cup. <\/p>\n In a fascinating bonus episode of the Sliced<\/a> podcast with Ben Coley and Sam Harrop, Murray detailed his own version of events from the tumultous week.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the Saturday, I had two hours off after they teed off in the afternoon,\u201d he explained. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t hear tremendously well, I thought I\u2019d go out to the 9th, 10th and 11th which were quite close to the television village. <\/p>\n Like this article? See more TG content in your feed!\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to add Today\u2019s Golfer as a preferred source on Google.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard stuff in that half hour that I can\u2019t repeat to you, it\u2019s that bad. Not fired at Rory but at Rory\u2019s family. I walked back and I thought \u2018do you really need to be part of this anymore?\u2019 That\u2019s when I decided to finish commentary. By the time I got on the plane on the Monday, I looked out over New York and thought its been a fantastic journey, but if that\u2019s our future, I really don\u2019t want any part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray was particularly appalled by Heather McMahan, the comedian and actress hired by the PGA of America to fire up the crowd seated in the sprawling first tee grandstand. McMahan stood down after leading chants of \u201cF*** you Rory\u201d on a megaphone. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n The toxicity set the tone for more ugly abuse that followed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe PGA of America should be ashamed employing a woman at the back of the first tee to behave the way she behaved,\u201d Murray added. \u201cI actually found out, thankfully, she doesn\u2019t have kids,\u201d Murray added. \u201cSo we\u2019re not going to see the next generation of that. I thought her performance was disgraceful.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Keegan Bradley who came and supported it and waved his hands to get the crowd to get louder\u2026 if he spent as much time looking at his pairings, [he] may well have been a winning Ryder Cup captain. They spent way too much energy on something that was disgusting and really had no place in our game.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray also took exception to the behaviour of the PGA of America\u2019s maligned president Don Rea<\/a>, who initially failed to condemn the abuse, and then congratulated on Europe on \u201cretaining the Ryder Cup\u201d \u2013 rather than winning the duel outright.<\/p>\n \u201c[I thought] where have you been for the last few hours?\u201d Murray added. \u201cThey didn\u2019t retain.\u00a0They had a putt to retain which they knocked in, then they had a putt to win which they knocked in.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just thought what a terrible organisation. I shouldn\u2019t say that because my father was captain of the PGA in Scotland in the mid-seventies so it was very much part of growing up and my father\u2019s involvement in that and every other profession involved in the PGA but I don\u2019t think they did themselves any favours at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Thankfully, Murray has not completely stepped away just yet, and made his return to the commentary booth to watch Cameron Young win The Players<\/a> last weekend. <\/p>\n But the 71-year-old\u2019s appearances are becoming increasingly sporadic and the Ryder Cup has certainly expedited his move into semi-retirement. <\/p>\n \u201cMy contract finished three months after the Ryder Cup,\u201d Murray revealed.\u00a0\u201cI met with our golf chief, Jason Wesley, who\u2019s been running Sky Sports golf for over 20 years.\u201dI [said] I think my time is probably up in the sense that there\u2019s no place for a lead commentator.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no place for my job because the world feeds have their own lead commentators, quite rightly so.\u00a0I just feel that after the Ryder Cup I lost a little bit of respect for the game. I was so disgusted at the stuff I heard.\u00a0I\u2019ll never repeat it because it\u2019s that bad. I just thought, \u2018you\u2019re 71 years of age, you\u2019ve had a great kick of the ball\u2019, as they say in Scotland. Now is maybe the time. <\/p>\n \u201cWe had a couple of lunches and Jason was keen for me to do the majors and The Players.\u00a0Because I\u2019d sort of mentally switched off, I said: \u2018Yeah, but if I do the majors now I have to work every week because I have to know what\u2019s going on. I have to look at other tournaments to see who\u2019s playing well, who\u2019s not playing well.\u2019 Anyway, he persuaded me to do The Players.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray could hang up the mic after July\u2019s Seniors Open at Gleneagles, a poignant place in his life in the sport. \u201cI will be doing The Masters<\/a>,\u201d he confirmed. \u201cI will do The Open<\/a> and I may finish at the Seniors [Open] because my mother met my father at Gleneagles. My father was an assistant pro and my mother worked in the hotel. So I may finish there\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see, as long as I\u2019m still okay upstairs and still happy to do the preparation, the homework, the research.\u00a0If I\u2019m still able and happy to do that I may continue, but that\u2019s the plan at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The impact of the horrific fan abuse at the Ryder Cup has had a lasting impact on one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-552867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}