{"id":91951,"date":"2025-09-29T04:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/91951\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T04:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:44:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-condemns-unacceptable-ryder-cup-abuse-and-confirms-his-wife-was-hit-by-a-beer-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/91951\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy condemns \u2018unacceptable\u2019 Ryder Cup abuse and confirms his wife was hit by a beer \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional Rory McIlroy<\/a> opened up on the abuse he received during the Ryder Cup<\/a> after Europe secured a famous win in New York. The 15-13 success for the visitors at Bethpage Black came against the backdrop of awful spectator behaviour, largely towards European players and their families. McIlroy confirmed his wife, Erica, was hit by a beer that was thrown during Friday afternoon\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should ever accept that in golf,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cI 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\u2019t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. We will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome and support your team. I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed … I didn\u2019t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It\u2019s like, support your players. That\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shane Lowry, McIlroy\u2019s close friend, added: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy replied in jest when asked what it was like playing Ryder Cup matches with policemen and dogs lining fairways. \u201cI wish they had let the dogs off the leashes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police out there and the amount of security presence was insane. Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn\u2019t going to be physical altercation or anything like that but there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be off-limits but obviously it wasn\u2019t this week. Erica is fine. She\u2019s a very, very strong woman. She handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we\u2019re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Masters champion was only slightly more serious when asked how it felt to fire an iron shot to close range after turning to ask spectators to \u201cshut the fuck up\u201d as they heckled him before he hit. \u201cVery fucking satisfying,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

\"KeeganKeegan Bradley congratulates Team Europe\u2019s Shane Lowry on winning the Ryder Cup. Photograph: Matthew Harris\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Keegan Bradley, the defeated US captain, criticised the rule whereby both the hosts and Europe received singles half points before a Sunday ball was struck. Injury sustained by Viktor Hovland meant Bradley had to remove one of his own players, Harris English, from the draw. This moved Europe to within two points of retaining the Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to change,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cI think it\u2019s obvious to everybody in the sports world, in this room. Nothing against Viktor but that rule needs to change by the next Ryder Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Donald, Europe\u2019s captain, looked emotionally drained as he assessed what played out in the singles. Europe won just one of the 11 matches. \u201cIt\u2019s been the most stressful 12 hours in my life,\u201d said Donald. \u201cShout-out to the Americans, Keegan [Bradley] and his captaincy. I knew it would be tough. I didn\u2019t think they would be this tough, they fought so hard, and all respect to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this means a lot obviously to me and the team. We came here knowing that the task was very difficult. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of these guys and what they have gone through, how they have come together, how they are playing for history, how they are playing for the people that came before them. Now there will be talk for generations to come as they go down in history. I couldn\u2019t be more proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just fortunate to have a team that knew me and trusted me. All I have ever tried to do is just be the best prepared I can be. So many different things went into this to deal with; the environment, the communication with the players. I\u2019m so, so, happy for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm joined McIlroy by heaping praise on Donald. \u201cLuke has set the bar for captaincy so extremely high,\u201d said the Spaniard. \u201cWhat he\u2019s done these four years is absolutely astonishing. He has been so professional, so dedicated, so incredibly meticulous, and well organised in doing everything that he needs to do and that\u2019s why you\u2019ve seen the two performances you\u2019ve seen from us.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emotional Rory McIlroy opened up on the abuse he received during the Ryder Cup after Europe secured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,20618,20619,5952,5948,5951,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-91951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-keegan-bradley","12":"tag-luke-donald","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-ryder-cup","15":"tag-shane-lowry","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}