Golf Star Rory McIlroy Slams 'Abusive' American Fans After Ryder Cup Matches In New York

The Bethpage Black Golf Course in Old Bethpage, New York, hosted the Ryder Cup over the weekend. MAGA Republican President Donald Trump was in attendance with his granddaughter Kai.

Twelve top players from the States faced off against twelve top players from Europe.

The Ryder Cup is a three-day men's team match-play format golf tournament between the United States and Europe. Held every two years, hosting duties rotate between Europe and the United States.

Europe clinched the victory on Sunday before the mostly American crowd. At conclusion of play, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy took issue with the crowd's behavior during the tournament.

Over five matches at Bethpage, McIlroy was heckled by screaming American fans who hurled insults about his golfing, his personal life, his height, his heritage, and his wife, Erica Stoll.

McIlroy—characterizing the Bethpage crowd as abusive—stated:

"What happened here this week is not acceptable."

"I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week."

The Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland native continued:

"Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people."

"Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup."

You can see his comments here:

youtu.be

The crowd also directly attacked McIlroy’s wife Erica Stoll, whose abuse at the hands of American fans was called out by Glamour magazine in their article titled "The Misogynistic Abuse Towards Rory McIlroy’s Wife at the Ryder Cup Is Deeper Than Golf."

Glamour's Stephanie McNeal wrote:

"It shows a cultural shift, one in which men feel emboldened to attack women in public without shame or consequence."

"At the Ryder Cup over the weekend, Stoll was subjected to the following: had a beer thrown at her head, was taunted with barbs about her brief 2024 split from her husband, and had to listen to fans chant the name of a woman who, some fans online claim without proof, had a relationship with McIlroy at some point around their breakup."

Team Europe player and championship clincher Shane Lowry of Ireland observed:

"I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing. The way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that."

The Guardian UK headlined part of their Ryder Cup coverage: "US fan ugliness at the Ryder Cup was merely a reflection of Trump’s all-caps America."

The Guardian's Bryan Armen Graham, who was in attendance at Bethpage, wrote:

"There’s a difference between atmosphere and interference, and Bethpage spent too much of the weekend blurring the two. Boos during practice swings and the sing-song 'YEW-ESS-AY! YEW-ESS-AY!' after a European miss were tiresome, but survivable."

"What crept in on Saturday was different: insults aimed at players’ wives, homophobic slurs, cheap shots at McIlroy’s nationality dripping with tiresome stereotypes, gleeful reminders of Pinehurst the moment McIlroy crouched over anything inside five feet."

McIlroy wasn't alone in finding the Bethpage crowd's antics unacceptable, but predictable.

But turnabout won't be fair play when Europe hosts the next Ryder Cup, as McIlroy stated:

"We will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable. And for me, it’s, you know, come and support your home team."

"I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people—I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for [Team USA's] Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me."

"It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing."

Europe has won 11 of the last 14 Ryder Cups.

Begun in 1927 by Samuel Ryder as a contest between the UK and U.S., the field was expanded to all of Europe in 1979 over concerns the competition was unbalanced by the larger talent pool in a far larger nation.

The European Ryder Cup team for 2025 consisted of golfers from Austria, Denmark, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Spain, and Sweden.

This was the European team's fifth time winning on a course in the United States in their last 10 tries.