{"id":267667,"date":"2025-09-30T23:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T23:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267667\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T23:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T23:08:10","slug":"ugly-americans-turn-ryder-cup-into-global-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267667\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugly Americans turn Ryder Cup into global embarrassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Greenwood\u2019s anthem \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d and its refrain, \u201cI\u2019m proud to be an American\u201d has long been a staple at sporting events. I\u2019ve teared up<\/a> many times when I\u2019ve heard him sing the song that celebrates love of country, gratitude for freedom and pride in the values that bind us together. It is, at its core, a ballad of unity.<\/p>\n

And yet, at the just-completed Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, the behavior of some American fans<\/a> was the very antithesis of Greenwood\u2019s lyrics. Instead of embodying pride and respect, the galleries descended into vulgarity and hostility. Instead of showing the world the best of America, they displayed our worst.<\/p>\n

European golfers were mocked mid-swing. Rory McIlroy, who is arguably the most popular golfer on the PGA Tour and its greatest active player, endured a torrent of insults about everything from his game to his height, to his heritage, to his personal life. His wife was even struck by a cup of beer.\u00a0 And at\u00a0 one\u00a0 point, a master of ceremonies at the first tee even led the crowd<\/a> in an expletive-laced chant against McIlroy before being fired in disgrace. What should have been a stage for sportsmanship became a national case study in boorishness.<\/p>\n

Proud to be an American?<\/p>\n

Hardly.<\/p>\n

The beer-soaked, foul-mouthed fans at the Ryder Cup made us ashamed to be from the same country as those knuckle-draggers behind the ropes.<\/p>\n

The scene grew so toxic that Tom Watson, one of America\u2019s most respected champions, congratulated the Europeans after their victory felt the need to publicly apologize for the rude behavior of the crowds. \u201cI\u2019d like to apologize for the rude and mean-spirited behavior from our American crowd at Bethpage,\u201d Watson wrote on social media. \u201cAs a former player, Captain and as an American, I am ashamed of what happened.<\/p>\n

\"Europe'sEurope’s Justin Rose points at a loud fan during Ryder Cup play on the Bethpage Black golf course in New York. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum)<\/p>\n

McIlroy himself pleaded for higher standards: \u201cI don\u2019t think we should ever accept that in golf,\u201d he said. \u201cGolf 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. Golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, it\u2019s more than just golf. Here\u2019s the deeper truth: Ryder Cup fans at Bethpage weren\u2019t an isolated problem. They were a mirror. Their jeers and chants reflected a broader American culture that has grown coarser, meaner and more polarized in nearly every arena of life.<\/p>\n

Just as those fans heckled McIlroy in the middle of his backswing, our politicians heckle each other in the middle of speeches. Respect has vanished from Capitol Hill, replaced by insults shouted across aisles and venom delivered on social media. The other party isn\u2019t treated as fellow elected officials anymore, but as an enemy to be mocked and destroyed.<\/p>\n

If lawmakers no longer respect the State of the Union, why should fans respect a player standing over a putt?<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s cable \u201cnews\u201d networks \u2014 which only amplify this corrosive tone. These networks aren\u2019t national news disseminators any longer; they are national provocateurs, whipping up outrage for ratings. A musician friend of mine, Jeff Willie Wilson, wrote a song about this phenomenon, appropriately entitled \u201cAngertainment.\u201d<\/a> News, it seems, doesn\u2019t sell anymore; insults do.<\/p>\n

Of course, this mindset all plays out daily online where social media platforms reward the cruelest voices with clicks and shares. Trolls thrive. Mockery is monetized. Decency is portrayed as softness and is drowned out. The Ryder Cup gallery was simply the live-action version of a Twitter feed: fans yelling insults at golfers as if they were dropping comments in a thread.<\/p>\n

Even outside politics, media and sports, we see the erosion of basic decency everywhere. Walk through a Walmart or a grocery store and you\u2019ll hear the F-word shouted casually across aisles. Drive through a neighborhood and you\u2019ll hear profane, misogynistic and racist lyrics blaring from car speakers with no thought for children nearby. It\u2019s not just that bad behavior exists; it\u2019s that it\u2019s been normalized.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Bethpage felt less like an exception and more like an inevitability.<\/p>\n

For decades, golf held itself to a higher standard. It was the gentleman\u2019s game, built on rules, etiquette and self-policing. Decency and decorum were as much a part of the sport as an alligator serenely sunning himself in a water hazard. But, now, slowly but surely, golf courses are starting to sound more and more like NFL stadiums or NBA arenas.<\/p>\n

On the PGA Tour, Phoenix\u2019s rowdy 16th hole has long been hailed as a \u201cfun\u201d exception in golf. Except it\u2019s no longer the exception. Its drunken, frat-party energy has metastasized and polluted other golf tournaments as well.<\/p>\n

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational a few years ago, Derek Britton, an Irishman who was one of the marshals at the event, said to one rowdy group of young men who were aggressively hooting and hollering: \u201cThis is not a soccer match; it\u2019s a golf tournament. So shush!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sports like soccer, fans are supposed to yell and scream and be part of the game,\u201d Britton told me then. \u201cThere are more and more golf fans who are starting to think that\u2019s acceptable behavior when it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that line between passion and poor behavior has now been crossed, and nowhere was it more glaring than at Bethpage Black.<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup was supposed to be a competition that showcased the very best of golf and, by extension, the best of us. Instead, it became a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

Unless we demand more \u2014 on the golf course, in our politics, in our media and in our daily lives \u2014 we will keep lowering the bar.<\/p>\n

Real patriotism is about respect and decency and about being the kind of people others admire rather than recoil from.<\/p>\n

If we want the world to take seriously the words of Lee Greenwood\u2019s beautiful song \u2014 that we are proud to be Americans \u2014 then it\u2019s time we started acting like it.<\/p>\n

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show \u201cGame On\u201d every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com\/listen<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 30, 2025 at 11:16 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Greenwood\u2019s anthem \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d and its refrain, \u201cI\u2019m proud to be an American\u201d has long…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":267668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[9331,139460,3248,1430,139459,1478,8656,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-267667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-americans","9":"tag-europeans","10":"tag-fans","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-heckling","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-ryder-cup","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115295768266152261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}