McIlroy Encourages European Fans Ignore Retaliating To Hazeltine Hecklers.

9 years ago by Comments Off on McIlroy Encourages European Fans Ignore Retaliating To Hazeltine Hecklers.

Chaska, Minnesota …

Europe will implore home fans not to follow the example of the Hazeltine hecklers when the Ryder Cup in played on the Le National course in Versailles in two years’ time.

The barracking of Europe’s players by drunken American supporters led to several spectator ejections as Hazeltine turned into the rowdiest Ryder Cup since Brookline in 1999.Lee Westwood revealed he had been labelled “a turd” by one abusive fan during Sunday’s Singles – “that’s the first time I’ve been called that since I was 12,” he said.

However Rory McIlroy wants European fans to set themselves higher standards in Paris in 2018.

Rory McIlroy holes a monster birdie putt but can't hear the noise from the home town crowd. (Photo - www.rydercup.com)

Rory McIlroy holes a monster birdie putt but can’t hear the noise from the home town crowd. (Photo – www.rydercup.com)

“We wouldn’t encourage any sort of retaliation. That’s just not who we are. That’s not what we do and we’ll be making that clear,” said McIlroy.

“We want to play this tournament in the manner in which it should be played and between us and the US team, it was played on the manner in which it should have been played. It was just a very small minority – 95 percent of the people out there in the American galleries are absolutely fantastic.

“We play week-in, week-out on the PGA Tour and they couldn’t be nicer to us. They are welcoming. They greet us like we are one of their own. But this week, at times, it went a little bit too far.“When you are teeing off at 7:35 in the morning and you’re seeing people on the first tee with a beer in their hand and matches aren’t finishing until 5:00 in the afternoon it has to be expected. I know I would be done at that point; I don’t know what I would be saying.

“It happened this week – a couple of people out there crossed the line – but we’ll take it on the chin. We’ll move on and we’ll definitely not encourage anything like that to happen in France next time around.”

Europe’s captain Darren Clarke praised the attitude of the American players and opposite number Davis Love’s management team towards the hecklers.

“Every US player and every US caddie was trying to do the same thing. They were trying to calm some of those few idiots down that were out there,” said Clarke.“We have to give massive respect to Davis’s vice captains and his team and his caddies for the way they tried to police it on our behalf.

“When Rory was about to take a swing to on 16 and some guy shouted in the middle of his backswing, the whole crowd turned on the guy and pointed who he was out to security and that guy was swiftly ejected.

“While it was unsavoury and not the right thing to do, the crowd deserve a lot of credit for their policing of the situation as well.”

  • Thanks to good friend and colleague Neil Squires for this story.


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