Rory McIlroy wasn’t the only member of Team Europe to face an onslaught of verbal abuse at the Ryder Cup.
of behavior of Bethpage Black crowd became the main story from Europe’s 15-13 victory in New York, and things turned particularly ugly on Saturday as Europe extended its lead. McIlroy faced a barrage of verbal abuseand his wife, Erica, dealt with what Shane Lowry called it an “amazing” level. of abuse. But every member of Team Europe had to face the unruly crowd of New York.
The two-time major champion continued GOLF Podcast subpar and called Bethpage the toughest environment he’s ever played golf in before detailing what he and his partners, Tyrrell Hatton and Sepp Straka, dealt with during the three-day event.
“It was tough. It was a tough week,” Rahm told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “With my group, so me and Tyrrell and Sepp, the three of us are very overweight, two of them with a very receding hairline and two of us in LIV, all I heard was, ‘Traitor, Terrorist, fat, very Ozempic, and Turkey and hairline dating stuff’. It’s not so much – of course, you have the usual thing where they say something about your wife and children, which is expected, but out line. It was more like from the time we got to the range until we left the golf course. Ten to 12 hours straight.”
Rahm noted that all athletes hear some level of abuse and attack, but the proximity of professional players to the crowd makes it different. While Team Europe was prepared for a wild New York crowd, they weren’t ready for what eventually came their way.
“The other thing I wasn’t ready for when I hit the opening drive, it hit 400 yards straight, I wasn’t ready for it to continue as we were swinging the club back,” Rahm said. “We hit a lot of shots with them still talking, and that’s the part we had to adjust to. On the first hole, I said to Tyrrell on the green, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going to hit the whole tournament without being loud.'”
Rahm believes the behavior of the Bethpage crowd helped make one The European team already closely related even more. And, at some point, the insults Rahm, Hatton and Straka faced lost their impact.
“We all had a very fun way of looking at it,” Rahm said. “Every time they called us fat, especially me and Sepp, (we) laughed. Do you think we don’t have a mirror? I know. We know. We’re the ones who eat. I get it. Let’s move on. It was less original than expected.”
The captain of Legion XIII received a lot of LIV hate from the New York crowd. When Rahm hit a foul shot on the fifth hole, he was forced into the fairway where a customer began to lay on him. But that fan ended up arguing with another fan about LIV.
“I had this guy in my ear calling me a traitor, a terrorist, this and that,” Rahm said. “And the first thing I want to say is that I’m like, ‘Duke, who’s a traitor? I’m not from this country, obviously.’ “After he said it enough times, there was a five-second pause and there was a woman next to the guy grilling me who just said, ‘Well, for that much money, I’ll do it too.’ And then they started arguing with themselves. They started to have a conversation. They started arguing with themselves. I actually found it quite funny.”
You can listen Rahm’s entire episode here or watch the YouTube video below.
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