Entering the final day of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, three points separate Team USA and Team Europe. The first two days of competition ended with USA up 9.5 to 6.5 points, with the final 12 one-on-one matches deciding the Cup battle. America must take 14.5 points to claim back what’s it hasn’t claimed in eight years.
None of that genuine sports excitement at the biggest event in golf is making as many headlines this morning as how Euro top gun Rory McIlroy is dealing with a collection of sad, cancerous grunts snaking their way through Team USA’s gallery. After expressing his disgust with the rowdy, critical reactions of some U.S. fans, it was a good bet the verbal abuse would only get sharper Saturday.
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In fact, it got so nasty during day two of this 2016 Ryder Cup that fans were ejected from the course for their remarks. Most famously, McIlroy stopped and pointed out one “fan” after the accused told the 2016 Fedex Cup Champion to “suck his d—.” Said fan was arrested by Minnesota’s finest. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?
In fact, there are multiple players in this childish fuss. On the one hand, you have a small minority of absolute genetic waste festering in the crowds along Hazeltine’s fairways. Many of them are less golf fans than event groupies. The Ryder Cup is golf’s Super Bowl these days, and bigger crowds add more idiots to the equation by the sheer law of averages. They’re ignorant, illiterate and spiritually ugly. Making noise at a public event is probably the least of their sins.
These hangers-on join in with the subgroup of knuckle-dragging goons you’ll find at any golf tournament. They’re the middle-aged, leather-faced, corporate yahoos in cargo shorts and alligator polos who shout their “…Get in the hole!” on every drive. Because they get drunk and smoke a cheap cigar at a driving range once a month, they consider themselves kindred spirits with some of the most skilled athletes in the world.
The loudmouths are victims of the 21st Century “me culture.” They have to be in on the story. Their egos demand nothing less. If they have to say something insulting to a golfer who did nothing to them beyond beating a player from their preferred team, so be it. They need the excitement to get their minds off their joyless jobs or the bitter fact that they peaked in high school.
Of course, the real reason a fan would display genuine hostility to someone like McIlroy is envy. The Irishman is a supremely gifted athlete. He plays a difficult game with a seemingly superhuman blend of power and precision — and he is better at his profession than his enemies in the gallery will ever be at anything in their lives.
Of course, there’s some wisdom in the claim that McIlroy could rise above all of this. I’ve interviewed McIlroy in person, and he’s usually a soft-spoken, friendly and humble young millionaire. He’s showing an unusually thin skin here and may be letting a little bit of his inner millennial out at Hazeltine. He might want to heed ye olde saying: “Never argue with an idiot. Eventually no one will be able to tell you apart.”
Having mentioned “a good bet” earlier, I have another one for any wise gambler. Mcilroy lost his opening match during the first round Friday. He first took offense at U.S. fans cheering Team Europe’s missteps during that round. He’s won three consecutive matches since then as the hostility grew in the gallery. So, just as you can be sure the barbs will keep coming Rory’s way Sunday, you know it’ll keep driving him to do damage.
As he said during his closing remarks Saturday: “The more they shouted, the better we played. I hope they shout at us all day tomorrow.”
They will shout. They wouldn’t do so if they had any brains in their heads, but they wouldn’t waste time yelling insults to grown men at a golf tournament if that was the case. None of those shrill voices come from anyone who could be called a golf fan — but their noise is threatening to drown out the poetic sports drama about to take the stage Sunday at Hazeltine National.
