{"id":487076,"date":"2026-03-21T05:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487076\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:03:09","slug":"fans-abuse-of-rory-mcilroy-made-me-quit-commentary-says-ewen-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487076\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans\u2019 abuse of Rory McIlroy made me quit commentary, says Ewen Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sky Sports golf commentator Ewen Murray says the \u201cdisgusting\u201d behaviour at last year\u2019s Ryder Cup<\/a> convinced him it was time to retire. The much admired Scot also\u00a0fired parting shots at the USA captain Keegan Bradley and the PGA of America.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Sliced Golf podcast, Murray, 71, said the comments from the MC on the first tee at Bethpage and from spectators on Saturday afternoon had been beyond the pale. <\/p>\n

\u201cI heard stuff in that half-hour that I can\u2019t repeat to you, it\u2019s that bad,\u201d he said. \u201cNot fired at Rory [McIlroy]<\/a> but at Rory\u2019s family. I walked back and I thought, \u2018Do you really need to be part of this any more?\u2019 That\u2019s when I decided to finish commentary.\u00a0By the time I got on the plane on a Monday, I looked out over New York and thought it\u2019s been a fantastic journey, but if that\u2019s our future I really don\u2019t want any part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EwenMurray has been a commentator for 35 years but his Sky contract has now expired Andrew Redington\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Murray, a former professional with 35 years\u2019 commentating experience, has a gentle delivery but his words will strike a firm chord with many. He was also dismayed by the response of Bradley after the MC, Heather McMahan, had led the crowd with a chant of \u201cF*** you, Rory.\u201d\u00a0<\/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 he said. \u201cI actually found out, thankfully, she doesn\u2019t have kids so we\u2019re not going to see the next generation of that. I thought her performance was disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley\u2019s role in whipping up the crowd also drew rebuke.\u00a0Murray said: \u201cIf Keegan Bradley, who came and supported it and waved his hands to get the crowd to get louder, spent as much time looking at his pairings, [he] may well have been a winning Ryder Cup captain. I think they spent way too much energy on something that was disgusting and really had no place in our game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the PGA of America, whose president, Don Rea, likened the crowd abuse to a \u201cyouth soccer game\u201d, Murray said witheringly: \u201cI just thought,\u2018What a terrible organisation.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeatherMcMahan was MC-ing at the Ryder Cup and led an abusive chant about McIlroy, but later apologised to him and Team EuropeLeon Bennett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Murray has not been heard much lately after his Sky contract expired, but he returned at The Players Championship last week and will be commentating at the Masters and the Open before potentially calling it a day at the Senior Open at Gleneagles in July. He said there was no longer a place for a lead commentator.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jon Rahm has withdrawn his appeal against DP World Tour sanctions for playing in clashing LIV Golf tournaments, but he is still refusing to pay about \u00a32.5million in fines.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard, who has won about \u00a363million on the Saudi circuit in addition to his original \u00a3225million contract, had been able to play on the DP World Tour pending that appeal, which was the loophole used to play for Europe at the Ryder Cup last year. His move means he is now in an entrenched position and is ineligible for the DP World Tour. If neither side backs down, he will be unable to make his minimum four events to keep his membership and, hence, will be out of the running for next year\u2019s Ryder Cup in Ireland.<\/p>\n

It is an enduring mess, but Rahm has always said he will never pay the fines. His argument is that he did not have to gain releases to play on the PGA Tour, and that he would not have played in the conflicting events anyway. The DP World Tour says he broke rules that he signed up to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JonRahm has refused to accept the DP World Tour\u2019s terms for a route back and is unwilling to pay finesYu Chun Christopher Wong\/Getty<\/p>\n

He was also offered a route back last month when the Tour gave conditional releases to eight LIV players<\/a>. That meant the likes of Tyrrell Hatton, Thomas Detry and Tom McKibbin would not face further fines and suspensions after settling their outstanding debts. Rahm refused to accept that deal because of the conditions which stated he must play in six DP World Tour events. He said that if that number had been four he would have signed immediately. It seems that he feels Tour chiefs\u00a0will eventually buckle and accede to that wish.<\/p>\n

However, patience is now wearing thin. Rahm has not said why he withdrew his appeal, but is likely to have belatedly realised that precedent is against him after the unsuccessful appeal decision of 2023. On that occasion an arbitration panel found the DP World Tour had the right to fine LIV appellants, including Ian Poulter, who had committed \u201cserious breaches\u201d of the Tour\u2019s code of behaviour and regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rahm is playing on the LIV circuit in South Africa where large crowds have been lapping up Bryson DeChambeau\u2019s form. The American led by two strokes at the halfway point and said: \u201cThis atmosphere is something that I want to play in a lot more and I know we can do that across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sky Sports golf commentator Ewen Murray says the \u201cdisgusting\u201d behaviour at last year\u2019s Ryder Cup convinced him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}