Shane Lowry and the European Ryder Cup heroes paid tribute to Rory McIlroy’s wife Erica after she endured days of abuse as she cheered on the visitors at Bethpage Black.
In a champions press conference filled with joy and jokes in the wake of a nail-biting 15-13 victory over the Americans, there was a brief pivot to focus on the ugly, venomous treatment dished out by the home galleries on Long Island. With Rory at the eye of that storm of vitriol, but his wife too took some hellish abuse too.
Having been alongside both of the McIlroys when things hit a nadir during Saturday’s fourballs, Lowry was all too aware of how bad things got.
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing,” said Lowry, who had holed the putt which retained the cup and ended an astonishing American fightback in Sunday’s singles.
The way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.
The entire European team responded to those words with a round of applause for McIlroy’s wife. Lowry’s answer followed a question posed to his teammate about the deeply personal barbs as well another incident where Erica McIlroy appeared to have a drink thrown at her late in Saturday’s session.
“Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman,” said her husband.
“You know, she handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”
At that point, veteran Justin Rose interjected:
“Can I just pick up on that, if you don’t mind, because I actually had no idea that Erica had a beer thrown at her yesterday, so fair play to Erica,” said the Englishman.
“She didn’t bring that to the team room.
“We didn’t make that a big deal.
That’s news to me. That says a lot about the strength of Erica and everybody on this team.
After winning his sixth Ryder Cup at his eighth appearance, McIlroy insisted that the kind of abuse that poured out of the New York crowds emphatically crossed a line and said that the next meeting at Adare Manor in 2027 couldn’t afford to see anything similar.
“Look, I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” he added.
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.
“I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed. I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.
“It was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played, and we tried to — I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that.”
When asked about the increased police presence and K9 units that rolled in to help track the Lowry-McIlroy partnership midway through Saturday’s shame, the Holywood man joked “I wish they had of let the dogs off the leashes!”
“Look, there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour.
“But it’s a minority of the crowd. It’s not the majority.
“The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest.”