FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Erica McIlroy often maintains a low profile at golf tournaments — sometimes electing to avoid the course or, if she does visit, often wears a hat. But at the Ryder Cup, that gets tricky. Wives and girlfriends take on a much bigger role in the proceedings and often follow the matches of their husbands inside the ropes, right where everyone is looking. And in the case of this Ryder Cup, where everyone was shouting.
Unfortunately for Erica, Rory McIlroy became the center of significant scorn from major portions of the home crowd at Bethpage Black, making her a natural secondary subject often located not far away. On Saturday evening, in the aftermath of Rory’s fourth match of the Cup, a drink was even cast in the air in her direction, skimming her straw hat and spilling some of the liquid on her. (You can watch the video here, captured by GOLF.com’s Dylan Dethier.)
The fallout of that spilled into Sunday, too, as Rory still had one more match to play, against Scottie Scheffler, and the weeklong abuse didn’t stop. This Ryder Cup seemed to revolve around him, for months of the lead-up and then even in the early morning chants from American fans. “F—k you Rory,” became such a popular phrase that an official event emcee even resigned her duties and apologized for joining in on it.
Rory persevered in a mostly successful fashion, winning three matches and tying another. But it wasn’t until Sunday night, after Europe had finally claimed the Cup, that he was asked on the record about what he and Erica faced this week.
What was your view of that situation, he was asked, and the direction of this event as a whole with that in mind — families inside the ropes?
“It should be off-limits,” McIlroy responded, “but obviously it wasn’t this week.
“Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman. You know, 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.”
This came during the full, 13-man press conference for Team Europe, during which McIlroy received plenty of questions. But before anyone could move on, it was Justin Rose who felt obligated to step in.
“Can I just pick up on that, if you don’t mind,” Rose said, “because I actually had no idea that Erica had a beer thrown at her yesterday, so fair play to Erica. She didn’t bring that to the team room. We didn’t make that a big deal. That’s news to me. That says a lot about the strength of Erica and everybody on this team.”
Shane Lowry spoke next. He was the one paired with McIlroy in the session preceding that incident, as well as the fourball session Friday afternoon when it became clear Europe was dominating and the American fans would have no problem berating them.
“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy,” Lowry began, “and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing and the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.”
It really was a moment worthy of reflection for the event, its fans, how it is run and policed. McIlroy was asked a number of questions in the press conference about what that abuse represented at-large. It was clear he had given it some thought, as he spoke for the next minute and a half.
“Look, I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week. Golf has the ability to you 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.
“Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable, and for me, it’s — you know, come and support your home team. Come and support your team.
“I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people — I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.
“Look, 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, and we tried to — 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.”
