McIlroy says Bradley could have reined in Ryder Cup crowd abuse

Rory McIlroy said United States captain Keegan Bradley could have used his platform to calm abusive crowd behaviour at last year's Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, but did not take the opportunity. Europe retained the trophy with a 15-13 win over the US, becoming the first away team to win the event since 2012, but the victory came amid sustained heckling in New York.

McIlroy described some of the abuse as "horrific", saying his wife Erica was hit by a drink thrown by a fan and that he heard "stuff about my daughter that I couldn't even repeat here." He added: "We knew going to New York that we were going to get a lot of stick, a lot of abuse." While McIlroy said he could brush off some taunts, and that "Erica, my wife, would say she's a grown woman, she's strong, she can handle that," he felt the situation crossed a line when it involved family members.

He said he and Bradley have discussed the matter and that "there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the team-mates to be like: 'Let's just calm down here. Let's try to play this match in the right spirit.' Some of them did that, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week in being the captain.

I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night, and he didn't." McIlroy called the crowds the worst he'd experienced at a Ryder Cup, saying the atmosphere was "by far" worse than in 2016 and comparing the behaviour to past hostile events.

Key Topics

Sports, United States, Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley, Rory Mcilroy, Crowd Behaviour, Bethpage Black