Euro Ryder Cup stars push back on comparing Bethpage crowd to Rome

The atmosphere at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland will be quite different from the one the European Ryder Cuppers just conquered at Bethpage Black.

Four members of Team Europe — Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert MacIntyre — will tee it up on the DP World Tour this week, but the golf world doesn’t seem ready to turn the page just yet. Especially when it comes to their historic victory and the New York crowd that relentlessly hurled insults at European players and families for three days.

Rory McIlroy, who got the worst of it, called the behavior “unacceptable.” Shane Lowry said that the verbal abuse McIlroy’s wife, Erica, dealt with was “astonishing.” On Saturday, American captain Keegan Bradley said some fans crossed the line, but he also didn’t see the environment as being that different from the one the Americans faced in Rome in 2023.

“I thought the fans were passionate,” Bradley said of the fans on Saturday. “I mean, their home team is getting beat bad. They are passionate fans. I wasn’t at Rome but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well.”

In an interview with the BBC on Sunday of the Ryder Cup, PGA of America president Don Rea also suggested the crowd abuse was similar to what happened at Marco Simone.

“I haven’t heard some of that — I’m sure it’s happened,” Rea said when asked about the torrent of verbal abuse hurled at McIlroy on Saturday. “It happened when we were in Rome on the other side and Rory understands … things like that are going to happen and I don’t know what was said. But all I know is golf is the engine of good.”

Hatton, who was also a member of the winning European Ryder Cup team in Rome, pushed back on the assertion that both sides have the same problem.

“Personally, I don’t think they were close at all,” Hatton said on Wednesday in Scotland. “I certainly, with what I heard last week, I don’t think Rome comes anywhere near that. … I don’t know what else to add to that. I think they are quite far apart to be honest.”

Fitzpatrick, whose parents didn’t travel to the Ryder Cup due to the expected crowd abuse, didn’t appreciate the whataboutism being thrown around by the U.S. decision-makers.

“I saw the interview with the PGA guy discussing how it was the same in Rome,” Fitzpatrick said, via The Scotsman. “It’s pretty offensive to European fans that he said that, really.”

Fleetwood, who went 4-1-0 in the Ryder Cup, didn’t want to paint all American golf fans with a broad brush. Bad actors at Bethpage crossed the line between supporting the home team and attacking the European players and their families, but it wasn’t representative of everyone who came out to see the biennial event.

“There’s a big difference between a hostile environment and personal comments,” Fleetwood said. “Again, I think we were all prepared for it. Of all the talk that there’s been, it’s not about the entire U.S. fans or the crowd. Like I don’t think that we should be sort of using that as a whole. I have so many friends that are Americans and that were at the Ryder Cup, people close to me, saying, I’ve got to support my own team, things like that. That’s just what it is. You’re going to get a tough environment when you get to an away Ryder Cup. Yeah, personal comments can go too far, and you obviously hope that that doesn’t happen again, or it shouldn’t happen. But it’s just so out of our control, and I think Keegan and — you just have to understand what you’re getting into and what you’re there for and go play golf.

“Like I say, how many people were there — 50,000 people, 60,000 people? You can’t have a go at everyone because the majority don’t do that. I have no hard feelings about it at all.”

Derek Sprague, the CEO of the PGA of America, condemned the behavior in an interview with Golf Channel and said he planned to apologize to all of Team Europe.

“And I can’t wait to reach out to Rory and Erica and really, quite frankly, the entire European team,” Sprague told Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard. “He might have been a target because of how good he is, but the whole European team should not have been subjected to that. And because of that, I feel badly and I plan on apologizing to them.”

As for the jeering he faced in New York, Hatton knows he didn’t get the worst of it. However, he hopes that when the Ryder Cup goes to Adare Manor in 2027, the crowd will choose to celebrate their team’s achievements instead of abusing the opponent.

“To be honest, I think some guys on the team had a lot worse than others,” Hatton said. “For me personally, yeah, there was a lot of insults maybe around height or hair line or weight, which — some of which I pretty much said to myself anyway, so it wasn’t like anything new.

“If it was my choice, and obviously what I say isn’t really going to affect how people behave, but I don’t really think that the insults is the way forward,” Hatton said when asked about the expected atmosphere in 2027. “I would much prefer it to be a respectful atmosphere; you let the guys play and the best team wins, rather than trying to affect the outcome by trying to putt off players or things like that.”

As for this week at the Dunhill, the Ryder Cup champions will welcome the change of pace after a week at Bethpage.

“The atmosphere will be worlds apart,” Hatton said. “Last week was pretty intense. This week will feel somewhat quieter but in some ways, also looking forward to that.”