European Ryder Cup legend calls out ‘despicable’ Bethpage fans

The crowd behavior at Bethpage Black during the 2025 Ryder Cup has become the lead story coming out of the week on Long Island, continuing to dominate golf headlines after Europe’s 15-13 win.

Things turned particularly ugly with the crowd on Saturday as Europe increased its lead. Rory McIlroy faced a torrent of verbal insults during his afternoon fourball session, and his wife, Erica, battled what Shane Lowry called an “astonishing” level of abuse. All of that led to PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague apologizing to the McIlroys and all of Team Europe.

Tom Watson said he was “ashamed” and apologized for Bethpage’s “rude” fans. But Watson wasn’t the only Ryder Cup legend to criticize the scene that unfolded in New York.

Tony Jacklin, who captained Europe to its first-ever win on American soil, was stunned by the American crowd’s behavior and how unprepared the PGA of America was to stop things from escalating.

“What disappointed me was the behavior of sections of the American galleries,” Jacklin said in a conversation with Champions Speakers, via Irish Golfer. “It was despicable at times. They even came within minutes of stopping play. Security wasn’t up to it. When you have a mass of people and an announcer leading anti-opposition chants, that’s the last thing golf needs.”

Jacklin is referring to a “F— you, Rory” chant that fans started early on Saturday and led to fallout involving comedian Heather McMahan, who was serving as host on the first tee. McMahan didn’t start the chant; that was done by a few unruly fans. But she did join in, yelling, “F— YOU, RORY! F— YOU, RORY!” into the mic. The PGA of America relieved McMahan of her duties and she apologized to McIlroy.

On the course on Saturday, McIlroy silenced the morning hecklers by stiffing a shot to three feet to end his and Tommy Fleetwood’s fourball match against Collin Morikawa and Harris English. But the scene really devolved in the afternoon as McIlroy faced a tidal wave of derogatory insults and jabs about his family and personal life. McIlroy had to step off shots several times as the crowd refused to relent. Justin Thomas and Cameron Young, who were playing against McIlroy and Lowry, tried to calm the crowd during the match, and both apologized after McIlroy and Lowry finished them off.

“I think that anybody that was out there could pretty blatantly tell you that there was some things said, and yeah, Cam [Young] and I said it to Shane and Rory yesterday that we felt for them. It was unfortunate,” Thomas said on Ryder Cup Sunday. “Cam and I just wished that we gave them something to cheer for instead of people to cheer against. I think that was kind of the main consensus of the last two days, that we weren’t giving them enough to cheer for, and they were just trying to help us win.”

As last week’s DP World India Championship, McIlroy noted that all the talk about the Bethpage crowd was taking attention away from Europe’s historic win.

“I’ve been following the sort of narrative coming out of the Ryder Cup just like everyone else,” McIlroy said. “But unfortunately, I think it takes away from what we focused on which is what an incredible performance it was by the European team. The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason,” McIlroy explained. “I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good the European team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.”

The Ryder Cup will head to Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027, where McIlroy hopes the European crowd behaves differently than what was on display at Bethpage so that the focus can be on the golf and not what’s happening outside the ropes.

“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” McIlroy said in the aftermath of Europe’s win. “I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week. 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. But you know, 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. Come and support your team. I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed. I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players.”