McIlroy says Bradley could have curbed 'horrific' Ryder Cup crowd abuse

Rory McIlroy said United States captain Keegan Bradley could have used his platform to rein in abusive crowd behaviour at last year's Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Europe defeated the US 15-13 to retain the trophy, becoming the first away team to win the event since 2012, but McIlroy said the result was overshadowed by relentless heckling.

He said his wife Erica was hit by a drink thrown by a fan and that he heard "horrific" abuse directed at his family, including comments about his daughter Poppy that he refused to repeat. McIlroy said he was able to brush off a Bethpage MC joining an expletive-led chant while warming up the crowd, but family-directed abuse was on another level.

He also admitted he swore at a spectator during Saturday's foursomes. While saying home-field advantage should be played into, McIlroy added that he and Bradley have talked about the issue and that Bradley, as captain, "had the biggest platform of the week" and could have asked fans to calm down on Friday or Saturday.

He acknowledged some team-mates did try to calm the atmosphere but called the behaviour "by far" the worst he has experienced, worse than the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. McIlroy blamed a "mob mentality" and a small number of "bad eggs" among 50,000 fans for skewing the atmosphere, and said Sunday was a little better because the matches were more dispersed around the course.

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Sports, United States, Golf, Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley, Crowd Abuse, Rory Mcilroy