The 2025 Ryder Cup: The Black Eye at Bethpage Black
I went into this Ryder Cup weekend wanting to write about golf—the golf and moments that make this event so special and unique. The pressure packed shots, the colossal momentum swings of match play, the raw emotion and national pride between teammates and rivals. There was no shortage of phenomenal golf played this week. The dominating performances by Europe in the Friday and Saturday team sessions, and a nearly impossible comeback from Team USA that came up just 1½ points shy when many people were predicting Europe to win in a historic blowout.
But let’s be honest: the golf wasn’t the story. It felt like a sideshow compared to what was happening outside the ropes. The fan behavior wasn’t rowdy or intense – it was vulgar, mean-spirited, and at times dangerous. A few moments that stand out include:
- An on-course MC whose sole job was to energize the crowd and lead simple U-S-A chants instead joining in on a full-throated “F*** you Rory” chant before later apologizing and resigning in shame.
- A beer can thrown from the crowd that struck Rory McIlroy’s wife.
- Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, and other U.S. players practically begging their own fans to be quiet so Rory and his partners could even hit a shot.
Not just a bad look or a tough scene; this was embarrassing and shameful.
Through all the excitement and hype leading up to this event I had been dreading this week for years. When the venue was announced back in September 2013, there was almost a collective gasp from fans and media. An uncertain mix of anticipation and worry that a traditionally rowdy event being paired with a course known for excessively… “rowdy” crowds could be a disastrous combination. I had been at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in 2019. Despite slightly subdued Sunday crowd size and atmosphere due to Brooks Koepka’s massive lead, the crowds still found ways to cross the line. Heckles hurled directly at players, sometimes in clear earshot of players family members could be heard throughout the day. And when Brooks Koepka, the eventual winner, began to struggle through the final nine holes large sections of the crowd didn’t rally behind him but began to openly cheer his wayward shots and missed putts. This was nothing new. At the 2009 U.S. Open, the line between rowdy and repulsive were crossed many times including fans making direct jabs at Phil Mickelson, widely considered the fan favorite at Bethpage. Add in the similar stories from the 2002 U.S. Open and a clear pattern emerges.
Turns out I, and many others over the last 12 years, were right.
I say all of this as someone who has played Bethpage Black myself. It’s a phenomenal and brutally difficult golf course, one I admire deeply and hope to play again, along with the other four courses on the property. Bethpage deserves to host more U.S. Opens and PGA Championships in the future. But if it wants to keep that place on golf’s biggest stage, the galleries must be held to a higher standard.
This wasn’t the first Ryder Cup marred by fan behavior. Brookline in 1999 has often been cited as another occasion where fan behavior overshadowed a thrilling finish. But this week felt different – like a genie we may never be able to put back in the bottle. And the contrast is clear even to more recent Ryder Cups held in the U.S. Videos have been circulating on X from the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, an event criticized at the time for coming close to crossing the line. Watching them now, those crowds look like choir boys. It felt like the fans were there to support their team not just to insult their opponents. The energy was raucous but still respectful. Nine years later, it feels like a different world.
No one absorbed more than Rory McIlroy. Since 2022 he has become increasingly polarizing among some circles being so outspoken on LIV, and never shying away from providing honest answers when asked in press conferences. Like him or not, Rory is the face of golf in the post-Tiger era.
The blatant hypocrisy makes it even worse. Of all the fans abusing Rory and his family, I couldn’t help but wonder what those same people were posting about in April, when Rory finally completed the career Grand Slam by winning his first Masters. Fans of all ages – but especially those in their late 20s and early 30s, people like me who grew up watching him—flocked to social media with emotional tributes. “I’ve waited my whole life to see him do this.” Even many wives and girlfriends posting that they never knew their husbands/boyfriends had such a connection to a golfer they had never met. How do you go from tears of admiration to the most heinous jeers in less than six months?
Through it all, Rory had every right to snap. I cannot blame him for telling fans to “shut the f*** up” after backing away from a shot in Saturday morning’s foursome session, a shot that he would go on to hit to only a couple feet from the hole. After Shane Lowry made a critical birdie putt on hole 17 of Saturday afternoon’s fourball session, I cannot blame him for turning to the gallery and pointing into the crowd one by one with a “f*** you, f*** you, f*** you.” I had immense respect and appreciation for Rory and what he means to the game coming into this week, and that has only grown after all he endured and how he performed. He played in all five sessions, winning 3 ½ points for his team. And when it was all over, amid Europe’s celebration, he went out of his way to comfort U.S. team captain Keegan Bradley’s young kids—another family that had also taken heat all week. That’s Rory McIlroy.
Many have already tried to shift the narrative, downplaying what went on in the galleries this week. “It’s New York! It’s the Ryder Cup! What do you expect? Europe has bad fans too — why don’t you ever talk about them?” As if geography or “everyone else does it” makes it acceptable. One fan, in a viral video on X, even tried to justify the abuse he and others hurled at Rory as being deserved before insisting he still “loves” him. Ironically, the same video also contained a clip of another fan shouting at a European player that they had poop on their shirt. Really impressive stuff. Good work, guys. Very classy.
Even voices outside golf chimed in with flimsy defenses. Retired baseball player Chipper Jones, while denouncing the worst of the behavior, still suggested that some of the blame fell on the Europeans for bringing their wives, children, or other family members into a New York City venue known for fan vulgarity. Really? Is that the standard we want to hold ourselves to – that families should stay home because some golf crowds can’t be trusted to behave? That is a damning indictment.
As much as others want to ignore it or downplay it, this week was a symptom of something bigger. Public life has gotten darker and meaner. Social media and the ever-shortening attention span reward the loudest, the cruelest, the most viral. It feels like a virus that has infected every part of life. Sports, golf included, have been unfortunately dragged into it as well.
Attending other PGA Tour events, you see it everywhere. Fans, phone in hand ready to record and post at the tap of a screen. Shouts after shots or at players to get laughs from the gallery, heard on the TV broadcast, or likes on social media. I am sorry to break it to you, but yelling “GET IN THE HOLE”, “MASHED POTATOES”, “BABA BOOEY”, or any other combination of nonsense was not funny or original 15+ years ago when it first became a trend – and it hasn’t gotten any better over time.
Ok I’ll admit Roger Maltbie’s reaction to hearing his first “MASHED POTATOES” shout at the 2011 Chevron World Challenge was funny, but the novelty of these shouts wore off fast. Now it is just stale and predictable noise, and emblematic of a culture where people think the show cannot be complete unless they inject themselves into it.
If golf doesn’t want this to be the new normal, it has to act. That starts with accountability and enforcement. The PGA of America — which runs the Ryder Cup when it’s held on U.S. soil — needs to answer for a lot of this. Awarding Bethpage Black the host site 12 years ago wasn’t an accident. They knew exactly what they were going to get, and they still let it spiral out of control.
Codes of conduct can’t just be video board messages (which were loudly booed by the Bethpage crowd this weekend) or post-event press releases and apologies. Throw an object, abuse a family, or cross the line with a jeer? Automatic ejection and possible lifetime ban. No warnings. No excuses.
Golf already has a model to copy: The Masters. At Augusta, cell phones stay outside the gates. Outbursts aren’t tolerated – unruly patrons can have their badge numbers reported resulting in ejections and lifetime bans. The result? The best atmosphere in all of sports. That’s not a coincidence.
Not every tour stop has to be Augusta, and The Masters should remain unique. But wouldn’t the game be better off if more tournaments trended closer to Augusta’s standard — and further away from the circus atmosphere of the WM Phoenix Open? Events like the Ryder Cup can still provide rowdy, contentious, and charged atmospheres, but ones that players and fans alike can be proud of and remember with fondness.
We as golf fans enjoy a unique privilege that almost no other sport offers: the chance to get incredibly close to the best players in the world. Courtside seats at an NBA game can cost you thousands, but I’ve stood less than ten feet from Tiger Woods as he hit a golf shot. That kind of access is extraordinary. But player safety — and the safety of fellow fans — is directly downstream of fan conduct. If tournaments can’t guarantee basic respect and safety, that sort of access can, and probably should, disappear. Preserving it should be one of the sport’s highest priorities.
There’s plenty more to unpack from this Ryder Cup — from the brilliant golf we witnessed, controversial course setup decisions, to the ongoing questions about Team USA’s Ryder Cup process and struggles. But before any of that, I felt it was important to speak out against what we saw outside the ropes. Golf deserves better than what we witnessed at Bethpage, and so do the players and families who make this event possible. If there’s a lesson to take away, it’s that respect has to start with us, not just at Ryder Cups, but in real life, on the internet, on the golf course, and beyond.
