An Ugly Saturday Scene at the 2025 Ryder Cup

Back at the Tour Championship in August, Rory McIlroy offered an ominous warning: Things might get ugly between players and fans at the upcoming Ryder Cup. He told Ewan Murray of the Guardian, “I think it’s inevitable something is going to happen in New York.” 

Early-week heckling caught people’s attention but didn’t signal serious cause for alarm. During Tuesday’s practice round, Jon Rahm was greeted with a “Where’s the Ozempic?” line – a comment Rahm later said he found funny. On Thursday, as McIlroy undid the top button of his shirt, a fan called out, “You don’t need a button to choke, Rory.” McIlroy and his teammates all laughed. Heckles like these were no bother to the Europeans, especially on warm-up days. 

The first day of competition on Friday, though, brought hints that bigger crowd issues were going to happen. McIlroy’s prediction materialized in full during Saturday afternoon’s four-ball matchup, where he and Shane Lowry faced Americans Justin Thomas and Cameron Young. However, the atmosphere was likely worse than even McIlroy could have predicted, a volatile stew of toxic insults hurled at him and Lowry (plus their families) throughout the day. It deteriorated to the point that more than 30 uniformed police officers and security guards were called in to try and quell the situation. 

Will it get ugly again during the Sunday singles session? 

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It’s unlikely, particularly with Europe needing just 2.5 points to retain the Ryder Cup. But the American crowds have been unrelenting thus far, and it’s possible we could be in for another charged afternoon. Saturday may very well be remembered as one of the worst instances of crowd behavior in the history of this event. No matter the score, the PGA of America will be eager to keep unruly fan behavior from dominating the headlines again today.

Saturday was volatile almost right from the start. On the third tee, a fan made a loud noise in the middle of Lowry’s downswing that impacted his shot. Seconds later, as the crowd quieted and McIlroy prepared to hit his own tee shot, another fan shouted, “Are you going to take my phone too?” A frustrated Lowry promptly defended his teammate, shouting in the direction of the fan to “shut the f*** up.” Tensions were high early, and they only escalated from there. 

On the fourth green – after a 519-yard walk full of inappropriate jeers – McIlroy faced a 28-foot eagle putt. As he addressed the putt, a fan yelled, “F*** you, Rory!” causing McIlroy to back off the putt and shoot a helpless look at the walking referee. On the next hole, as Lowry prepared to hit his approach shot from the right-hand rough, a fan taunted Lowry that he needed a stereotypical Irish dinner pureed and put into a baby bottle. Immediately after he hit the shot, a different fan called him a Teletubby, another reference to his weight. Compared to many of the heckles hurled the Europeans’ way on Saturday afternoon, those comments were mild.  

Tensions came to a boil on the sixth hole, starting at the tee box. As was typically the pattern, loud jeers and boos greeted McIlroy until he addressed the ball, at which point silence fell. Right as McIlroy was about to pull his driver back, a fan shouted a clear, deeply offensive personal insult targeting McIlroy’s marriage from ten rows deep in the gallery. Fans groaned in shock at the comment. McIlroy backed off the tee shot. 

Once the group made its way onto the green, a significant portion of the gallery began chanting “1-2-3…,” timing McIlroy’s process to ready for his putt. Both Justin Thomas and Cameron Young raised their hands to quiet the crowd. Just before McIlroy attempted his putt, an offensive shout rang out from behind the nearby seventh tee box, forcing McIlroy to step off the putt once again. Rory then looked at the walking official and stated he wouldn’t hit his putt until the fans shut up. 

Next came Lowry’s turn after McIlroy missed his long-range attempt. As he prepared to putt, a fan screamed, “Rory took enough time, Shane!”, forcing Justin Thomas to once again plead for silence. By the time the four golfers exited the sixth green, the group behind them had caught up, slowed by the constant interruptions. 

Crowd noise happens at a Ryder Cup. It’s part of the competition, an element the Europeans embraced early in the week as they sought to become the first team to win a Ryder Cup on the road since 2012. Noise, in itself, is nothing to get worked up about. It’s part of sport. 

Saturday’s toxicity came from both the personal, out-of-bounds nature of the commentary and the timing of the insults. Chants of “Roooooorrrrryyyy, Roooooorrrrryyyy” generally preceded deafening silence. Then, a piercing comment about McIlroy’s family would ring out as he tried to hit his shot. They were the types of jokes people make online behind the mask of anonymity, shielded from consequence. Similarly, the overwhelming majority of comments made on Saturday afternoon came from sections of the golf course where the gallery was eight to 10 rows deep. Few insults came from the first row. 

Lowry was called a “fat f***” just off the seventh green. Thomas powerlessly tried to silence the crowd on nearly every green for the remainder of the match. Lowry ejected a fan on the 10th tee box. Police reinforcements lined the fairways both to control the gallery and protect the players. These were the sights and sounds of a vile afternoon at Bethpage Black, one in which cowardly comments from the crowd stole attention from the golf itself.

What made the environment palpably uncomfortable was the personal nature of the insults. These were not just Pinehurst-related jeers aimed at McIlroy for losing the U.S. Open or annoying yells about which direction a putt breaks. There were classless comments about players’ marriages, their physiques, their personal lives, etc.—made worse by the fact that European players’ wives and families were often following along with the matches, walking inside the gallery ropes, hearing the insults hurled their way. 

Every fan has a different tolerance level for what’s acceptable to yell at a sporting event. Saturday at Bethpage crossed any reasonable person’s line, including the many fans in attendance who gasped in disapproval at remarks from other spectators. When McIlroy and Lowry finished their match with a 1-up victory, McIlroy found his wife, Erica, behind the 18th green and embraced her for several minutes. Both appeared to be holding back tears. McIlroy looked exhausted. 

A loud, raucous home crowd is an integral part of the Ryder Cup experience. However, a crowd with bad actors intent on insulting the competitors and disrupting the action is something altogether different. Unfortunately, the latter became the story on an ugly Ryder Cup Saturday at Bethpage. It’s a shame the unruly crowd will be one of the lasting takeaways from Saturday instead of a stellar performance from the Europeans, who absorbed all the ugliness an American crowd could throw at them and still played exceptional golf.