Golf Matters

 

The Golf Course, North Berwick
John Lavery (1856-1941)
Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY_NC-ND]

The lasting memory of this Ryder Cup won't be a single swing of the club so much as the ugly backdrop: galleries that drifted from partisan into venomous and the organisers who let the line slide until it snapped...

There's a difference between atmosphere and interference, and Bethpage spent too much of the weekend blurring the two. Boos during practice swings and the sing-song "YEW-ESS-AY! YEW-ESS-AY! after a European miss were tiresome, but survivable. What crept in on Saturday was different: insults aimed at players' wives, homophobic slurs, cheap shots at Mcllroy's nationality dripping with tiresome stereotypes.

Europe answered with performance. So much for home advantage: for two years the Bethpage sales pitch was the snarling, uniquely American cauldron that would rattle Europe. Message received, but the idiots took it literally. Add the optics of Donald Trump's fly-in on Friday- fist bumps, photo-ops, galleries dotted with Maga hats and a certain politics of humiliation playing to its base - and the swagger slid easily into license...

Given the guest of honour's well-known aversion to losing gracefully, it was hardly a shock that the ugliest behaviour broke out just as America's chances were slipping away. But the tournament's response to the ugly crowd behaviour on Saturday was woeful. Extra security materialised around Mcllroy's match at the turn. A couple of spectators were ejected. The PGA  of America said it bolstered policing and pushed more frequent etiquette messages on the big screens. Fine, as far as it goes. But once a thousand people have decided a backswing is their cue, you can't manage it with a graphic and a frown. Enforcement has to be swift, visible and consequential or it becomes permission  by another name.

Yesterday brought a tacit admission that the line had been crossed. The first-tee master of ceremonies, the comedian Heather McMahan, stepped down from her role after video showed her leading a chant of "F.... you Rory!" on Saturday morning. If the MC is amplifying the worst instincts in the building, that's not "energy"; it's an institutional failure...

It's also true that many Americans tried to keep the thing on the rails. Too often, though, they were drowned out by the performative tough guys in flag suits who treat the Ryder Cup like a tailgate with better lawn care...

What happened here didn't invent the tone of American life so much as reflect an incremental breakdown in public behaviour... In 2025 you can say almost anything in public  and be cheered for it... people testing boundaries not because the moment needs them to, but because they've been told volume is virtue...

The week will also be remembered for the noise that wasn't passion, the hostility that wasn't edge and the adults who mistook the difference.

(Bryan Armen Graham, The Guardian, 2025)

Extraordinary scenes at the golf in America and a truly disturbing succession of events where not only the players but their wives were routinely and obscenely insulted. This did indeed seem like a breakdown in public behaviour. How was this seen in America? Was there the same level of disbelief? Or was this viewed as an expression of free speech? Or as one American commentator put it - "There's passion and then there's poison."

Letters

Sir, The appalling scenes at this year's Ryder Cup, with spectators abusing players and trying to throw them off their game, is, I believe, a consequence of the aggressive rhetoric coming from the top of US politics.

Many of the US fans seem to have gone to the tournament deliberately to offend and disrupt the European team. If the president of the US says "I hate my opponent," it is a green light to throwing decency and respect out of the window. Until discourse deviates from the polarising "us against them" narrative, this sort of disgraceful spectacle will only get more common.

(Pippa Rose, Abingdon, Oxon, The Times, 2025)

Sir, I attended the women's World Cup final at Twickenham on Saturday and watched the Ryder Cup. I have been a great sport's fan for many years and have never witnessed such a stark contrast in the behaviour of spectators. At Twickenham the enjoyment, courtesy and enthusiasm of the fans was impeccable. The contrast with the Trump-inspired golf fans from the USA was illuminating.

(Hugh Ogus, Alresford, Hants, The Times, 2025)

Sir, How disappointing that the US spectators failed to match the sportsmanship exhibited by the players in the Ryder Cup. The constant heckling from the crowds towards the European players was unpleasant and demeaning. Golf is used to better behaviour from spectators.

(David Kidd, Petersfield, Hants, The Times, 2025)

Sir, It would be interesting to know if Trump sees any parallels between the crowd behaviour and results at the Ryder Cup and his own democratic and government processes.

(Andrew Miller, Wallingford, Oxon, The Times, 2025)

Sir, The US Ryder Cup team must find it off-putting in Europe to be met with  total silence when teeing off.

(Donald Bain, Edinburgh, The Times, 2025)

Sir, Will Trump now revoke the visas of the European Ryder Cup team?

(Andrew Fearn, Newark, Notts, The Times, 2025)