Lee Greenwood’s anthem “God Bless the U.S.A.” and its refrain, “I’m proud to be an American” has long been a staple at sporting events. I’ve teared up many times when I’ve 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.
And yet, at the just-completed Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, the behavior of some American fans was the very antithesis of Greenwood’s 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.
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. And at one point, a master of ceremonies at the first tee even led the crowd 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.
Proud to be an American?
Hardly.
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.
The scene grew so toxic that Tom Watson, one of America’s most respected champions, congratulated the Europeans after their victory felt the need to publicly apologize for the rude behavior of the crowds. “I’d like to apologize for the rude and mean-spirited behavior from our American crowd at Bethpage,” Watson wrote on social media. “As a former player, Captain and as an American, I am ashamed of what happened.
McIlroy himself pleaded for higher standards: “I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” he said. “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. Golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.”
Sadly, it’s more than just golf. Here’s the deeper truth: Ryder Cup fans at Bethpage weren’t 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.
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’t treated as fellow elected officials anymore, but as an enemy to be mocked and destroyed.
If lawmakers no longer respect the State of the Union, why should fans respect a player standing over a putt?
And then there’s cable “news” networks — which only amplify this corrosive tone. These networks aren’t 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 “Angertainment.” News, it seems, doesn’t sell anymore; insults do.
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.
Even outside politics, media and sports, we see the erosion of basic decency everywhere. Walk through a Walmart or a grocery store and you’ll hear the F-word shouted casually across aisles. Drive through a neighborhood and you’ll hear profane, misogynistic and racist lyrics blaring from car speakers with no thought for children nearby. It’s not just that bad behavior exists; it’s that it’s been normalized.
That’s why Bethpage felt less like an exception and more like an inevitability.
For decades, golf held itself to a higher standard. It was the gentleman’s 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.
On the PGA Tour, Phoenix’s rowdy 16th hole has long been hailed as a “fun” exception in golf. Except it’s no longer the exception. Its drunken, frat-party energy has metastasized and polluted other golf tournaments as well.
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: “This is not a soccer match; it’s a golf tournament. So shush!!!”
“In sports like soccer, fans are supposed to yell and scream and be part of the game,” Britton told me then. “There are more and more golf fans who are starting to think that’s acceptable behavior when it’s not.”
But that line between passion and poor behavior has now been crossed, and nowhere was it more glaring than at Bethpage Black.
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.
Unless we demand more — on the golf course, in our politics, in our media and in our daily lives — we will keep lowering the bar.
Real patriotism is about respect and decency and about being the kind of people others admire rather than recoil from.
If we want the world to take seriously the words of Lee Greenwood’s beautiful song — that we are proud to be Americans — then it’s time we started acting like it.
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen
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