{"id":386857,"date":"2026-01-04T03:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386857\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T03:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:27:09","slug":"rory-mcilroy-says-us-captain-should-have-stepped-in-after-horrific-verbal-abuse-at-ryder-cup-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386857\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy says US captain should have stepped in after \u2018horrific\u2019 verbal abuse at Ryder Cup \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy called out the \u201cmob mentality\u201d that led to \u201chorrific\u201d abuse hurled at himself, his wife \u200band his daughter during last September\u2019s Ryder Cup<\/a> at Bethpage Black.<\/p>\n

The world no 2 golfer from Northern Ireland<\/a> opened up about \u200dhis unpleasant experiences with the crowd in New York in a recent appearance on The Overlap podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2016, we played the Ryder Cup in \u200dMinnesota and I thought that was bad. But I compare this year to 2016, and 2016 was nothing compared to some of the stuff we heard,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew going to New York that we were going to get a lot of \u200cstick, a lot of abuse. For six months right before the competition, everyone was saying it\u2019s going to be hostile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t [think it \u2060would be as hostile as it was]. Look, I don\u2019t care if people are saying whatever \u200cthey\u2019re \u200bsaying \u200dto me, even the first tee announcers shouting \u2018f**k you, Rory\u2019, which is nothing compared to the other stuff we heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

As McIlroy (36) and Team Europe built a massive lead and then held on for a 15-13 victory<\/a>, the five-time major winner said \u2060the heckling crossed the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cErica, my wife, would say she\u2019s a grown woman, she\u2019s strong, she can \u2060handle that,\u201d he added. \u201cBut then when it starts \u2060to get into your family, I heard stuff about my daughter that I couldn\u2019t even repeat here. It\u2019s horrific.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it\u2019s sort of society and culture \u200dat the minute as well. It\u2019s that mob mentality where people see other people doing something and then they think it\u2019s okay. And then it sort of builds up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 50,000 people there and all it takes is 500 of those to be bad eggs and then it skews the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy said US captain Keegan Bradley could have done more to rein in the unruly fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeegan and I have talked about this,\u201d McIlroy added. \u201cYou have to play into the \u200chome-field advantage, absolutely.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut during the \u200ccompetition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the stuff that we heard on the course, there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the teammates to be \u200clike, \u2018let\u2019s just calm down here. Let\u2019s try to play this match in the right spirit\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them did that, but obviously \u2060Keegan had the biggest platform of the week in being the captain. I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night and he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2027 Ryder Cup<\/a> will take place at Adare Manor, Co Limerick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McIlroy, meanwhile, says he would welcome the return of more top players from LIV Golf because the sport needs its top stars competing against each other more regularly.<\/p>\n

The recent decision by five-time major winner Brooks Koepka to quit LIV was a blow for the Saudi-backed organisation.<\/p>\n

Koepka\u2019s departure throws up a conundrum for the PGA Tour, which has usually insists on players serving a one-year suspension before returning. A spot on the DP World Tour does, however, remain an option as he played a number of events last year.<\/p>\n

McIlroy would not object to his return, or that of other LIV players, but he accepts others may not be so keen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve made the money but they\u2019ve paid their consequences in terms of their reputation and some of the things they have lost by going over there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson [DeChambeau] back and whoever else, I would be okay with it. But I recognise not everyone is in my position \u2013 it would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing it (LIV) has done is elevated the majors and the Ryder Cup because only four or five times a year you see all the best players playing together. For golf to be relevant, I think we need the best players together more often than that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy called out the \u201cmob mentality\u201d that led to \u201chorrific\u201d abuse hurled at himself, his wife \u200band…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,1976,13261,164316,82],"class_list":["post-386857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-ryder-cup","tag-ryder-cup-2027","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}