FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — It was easy to find American losers at Bethpage Black on Saturday, and you didn’t need a scoreboard. You didn’t even need to open your eyes. You just had to listen to the crowd. Fans were profane, obnoxious, ill-timed and not nearly as clever as they liked to believe.
“Absolutely, it was a really challenging day,” Rory McIlroy said.
“Like something I’ve never experienced,” Shane Lowry said.
By the back nine of their match against Justin Thomas and Cam Young, McIlroy and Lowry literally needed a police escort to get around the course: A handful of cops followed them everywhere to keep order. It was a great match that went all the way to the 18th hole, but Thomas might need to catch the replay to appreciate it. Whenever McIlroy or Lowry stood over a putt for the last three holes, Thomas was facing the crowd, trying to get people to be quiet. Beating Europe is hard enough. Players shouldn’t have to get involved in crowd control.
Everybody in the match seemed uncomfortable.
Asked whether the crowd crossed the line, McIlroy said. “It’s not for me to say. People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not.”
Of course they did. Not every fan. Not even most fans. But too many people at the People’s Country Club had no idea how to treat a guest, and the PGA of America shoulders some of the responsibility. Augusta National sets reasonable standards for fan behavior and enforces them. Why can’t everybody else?
The ugliness here was as predictable as the competition has become. When Brooks Koepka won the 2019 PGA Championship here, the crowd was on him relentlessly during the final round. Koepka won anyway, and if the jeering bothered him, then admitting it would have violated his code.
“I’ve been to sporting events in New York,” he said then. “I know how it goes.”
What would the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black be like?
“We’ve actually talked about this a lot during the week,” Koepka said. “Good luck to Europe with the fans.”
That was more than six years ago. It was before Thomas and Daniel Berger chugged beers as they won the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, and before McIlroy closed the 2023 Ryder Cup by promising Europe would triumph here. Everybody understands a Ryder Cup crowd is different: Louder, more partisan, more personal. Players want that. But they also want to be treated with respect as they stand over a tee shot or line up a putt.
Organizers should have emphasized decorum before the first tee shot. When it becomes socially acceptable to act like a jerk, more people act like jerks. A European fan yelled at Young while he was in mid-chip on the 18th hole Saturday afternoon.
One weird aspect of the Ryder Cup, which is hard to fully appreciate until you attend one, is how little golf is actually played. Except for the Sunday singles matches, there are (at most) four groups on the course at any given time. This leaves fans watching an inordinate amount of action on the screens around the venue. Those screens should have streamed public-service announcements about appropriate behavior. Once in a while, college basketball coaches will grab microphones and tell their own fans to behave themselves. This Ryder Cup needed that.
Maybe talking about fan behavior sounds whiny or soft. Sports should be fun. Golf takes itself too seriously. Yes, sure, absolutely. But this should have been more enjoyable than it was. When McIlroy and Lowry finally closed out Thomas and Young, McIlroy looked like he escaped an uncomfortable social situation instead of like he won a Ryder Cup match. He did eventually swing his putter in celebration.
“You know, we knew what we were going to get coming here,” Lowry said. “It was a very tough day. [Playing] with Rory doesn’t make it any easier. I think he’s getting the brunt of it.
“I think we dealt with it very well. I said at the beginning of the week, I don’t know what way I’m going to deal with it, but I’m going to be myself. And I was myself today.”
The Americans need to win 10 of the 12 remaining points to win the Ryder Cup. We can sum up their chances of winning in two words: They won’t. And yet, the singles matches will still go on as scheduled, and every golfer on the course will try like hell to win. Meaningless entertainment is a gift. Let’s treat it that way.
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