Jess Battison
Rory McIlroy has spoken out after his wife, Erica, was hit by an object which was thrown during the weekend's Ryder Cup.
As seen on social media, the Northern Irish golfer also burst out into shouting ‘f**k you’ at the American crowd during the Ryder Cup, as the Europeans and their families faced some rough behaviour.
Despite a fightback from the USA in New York yesterday (28 September), Team Europe retained the trophy with a 15-13 victory.
The notoriously feisty fans had made their feelings clear towards the Europeans, and McIlroy faced abuse all week and on Saturday afternoon, Erica was hit by a beer that was thrown during play.
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When the Masters champion was asked how it felt to fire an iron shot to close range after he had asked spectators to ‘shut the f**k up’, he said: “Very f**king satisfying.”
As well as the beer being thrown at his wife, McIlroy was subjected to a chant from the American crowd of ‘f**k you Rory’ which was encouraged by the MC at Bethpage Black – they stood down before the final day of play.
“Look, I don't think we should ever accept that in golf,” the golfer said during a press conference.
“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.
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“Sometimes this week we didn’t 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.”
Warning: The below content contains swearing
McIlroy added that he thinks he’d be annoyed if he was an American player.
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“I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing,” the 36-year-old explained.
“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. 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.”
His close pal, golfer Shane Lowry, described the amount of abuse towards Erica as ‘astonishing’.
McIlroy was also asked how it felt playing the matches while police and dogs lined the fairways.
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“I wish they had let the dogs off the leashes,” he said. “The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane.
“Look, nothing was going to happen – there wasn’t going to be physical altercation or anything like that – but there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour. It’s a minority of the crowd, it’s not the majority. The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful, but I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf.
“It should be off limits but obviously it wasn’t this week. Erica is fine. She’s 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’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”