Team Europe vice captain Dodo Molinari has clarified whether there was ever a consideration of halting play at the Ryder Cup due to the vile abuse directed at his players from American fans.
Volatile fan behaviour was front and centre at Bethpage Black over the course of three days as Europe’s golfers were pelted with unsavoury heackles from the galleries. Rory McIlroy’s wife Erica had a beer thrown at her in a widely criticised action, while PGA of America chief executive Derek Sprague said he would apologise to McIlroy and the rest of the European team.
Europe nevertheless overcame the hostile environment to seal a first away Ryder Cup since 2012, achieving the historic feat after surviving a final-day USA comeback to win 15-13.
There were claims that Europe considered stopping play amid the abuse they were receiving, but Molinari has emphatically quashed such reports.
“That was never discussed, that was never talked about, that’s not true at all,” Molinari told Fried Egg Golf.
“The only thing we said is that we were trying our best not to irritate the crowd even more, to be humble and try not to react to them, which I think we did a great job at for a day and a half.
“Then when you’re exposed to that for 12 hours a day, eventually it gets to you and obviously some players reacted, but I think they’re just normal human beings. It would have been impossible for anyone not to react for three straight days.”
Tensions visibly spilled over on the Saturday, with McIlroy and Shane Lowry both firing expletive responses towards rowdy American fans.
USA golfer Collin Morikawa admitted the behaviour of American fans “crossed the line” after the Ryder Cup’s conclusion but did not believe he was partly to blame for inflaming the atmosphere, having called for “absolute chaos” at Bethpage two days before the event.
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