McIlroy and Lowry bite back at abusive fans, as Europe look to inflict Ryder Cup humiliation on the USA

Rory McIlroy knew something was going to happen at this Ryder Cup, where fan behaviour spilt over into chaos.

Perhaps he pre-empted that the lion’s share of the New York crowd’s abuse would be aimed at him, given 2025 has belonged to the Northern Irishman, and him only.

Victories at Pebble Beach, Sawgrass, Augusta and the K Club meant he arrived at Bethpage at this 45th Ryder Cup with a target on his back, as Europe’s talisman.

Several reports from the ground said loud comments were aimed at McIlroy’s personal life, not to mention other shouts about his playing partner Shane Lowry’s bodyweight.

So some things, not something, did happen on Saturday when Team USA was at its most desperate, and the crowd appeared to be the only hope of inspiration for the home team, or deterrence of the away.

Before the career grand slam winner lined up one of his many dialled approach shots of the Saturday foursomes while playing with his equally electric friend Tommy Fleetwood, he turned to tell the crowd and told them to ‘Shut the f*** up’.

The flaxen-haired Fleetwood, a softly spoken star from Southport in north west England, isn’t the type to openly rise to the frankly idiotic and boring cries of the Bethpage booboys, but Lowry is – McIlroy’s partner for the Saturday fourballs.

The passionate 2019 Open champion of Portrush rolled in a super putt early in the afternoon round, and appeared to let rip with a ‘F*** you’ aimed at a particularly irritating section of the crowd, all while power-walking like a dad to a dancefloor.

Credit to their fourball opponent Justin Thomas, though. He calmed the crowd to allow them to putt from time to time, minutes after stoking the fire and piling on the wood on another green.

You might say Thomas’ contrasting actions summarise where the Ryder Cup is, and how we have got here. Many laud the event as the best in the sport and celebrate the tribalism and hostility, yet take issue when the end result is unsavoury. At least the sport and level of golf are unconsciously good, which is ultimately the point.

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The lunatics took over the asylum

The frantic and ugly scenes outside the ropes evidently seeped inside. With each passing moment, Europe’s dominance grew and genuine humiliation was on the cards for America.

There was a verbal exchange between the Fleetwood/Rose and DeChambeau/Scheffler pairs on the 15th green, and then DeChambeau had a heated exchange with Fleetwood and his caddie Ian Finnis on their way up to the next hole.

The concoction of noise and steam met a new chapter when Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott and Euro vice captain Francesco Molinari became involved in a verbal spat in this antagonised entourage.

It settled on the 16th tee, but goodness, what are we doing here? At the same time, the internet was awash with more reports of grim chanting and personal digs from alcohol-fuelled fans. This was always the fear.

Where are the Team USA big guns?

Not to exonerate the jibberish-shouting dumbos of their crimes, but maybe they were attempting to fill an almighty void left by the 12 American players supposedly representing them.

It is truly remarkable that Scottie Scheffler, a man who makes his comparisons to Tiger Woods more palatable by the week, can score 0 points in four matches. It even took the equally talented Bryson DeChambeau until his third match on the second morning to earn a point. He was still 1 for 4 after two days, though.

He and rookie Cameron Young took down Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick in some style in the day two foursomes. Young made a mightily impressive start to his Ryder Cup career, taking two points from his first two matches on Long Island.

You would imagine these top professionals could muster the inspiration and will from within to earn points, but when your two best players are not leading by example, this can feed through the team room.

In a week of many contrasts between each side, the core of the blue and gold team, being McIlroy, Fleetwood and Jon Rahm in my book, have stood up to be counted. McIlroy and Fleetwood haven’t lost a foursomes match yet when paired together, taking 7.5 points between them thus far, and Rahm and his LIV Golf chum Tyrrell Hatton haven’t lost as a duo either.

Euro captain Luke Donald built the wall with these bricks, meanwhile, the US barely have a foundation to speak of.

Saturday fourballs session

Final score going into the Sunday singles: USA 4.5 – 11.5 Europe

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Do statistics matter?

Shortly after the pair of Collin Morikawa and Harris English was sent to the slaughter on Friday morning, a post on X went viral that said in a calculation of optimal foursomes pairings by the website Data Golf, Morikawa and English were ranked 132nd out of 132 combinations.

They bumped into the rampant Fleetwood Mac team and got thrashed 5&4. While Data Golf boasts a plethora of strokes gained and general statistical information, it isn’t the order of the day, and a computer can’t dictate the Ryder Cup. We’re not in the A.I. realm where Europe face the USA on Mars, just yet.

Having said that, eyebrows were raised higher than the Empire State when Bradley sent this hopeless pair out again on Saturday morning, and guess who they were drawn against. To their credit, they only lost with two holes to play this time.

In the Ryder Cup, the numbers matter. If they didn’t, Edoardo Molinari would be sitting at home with crisps and a beer like the rest of us. His stats-based approach has proved crucial in the success of Donald’s captaincies.

In 2023, Molinari, who played in the 2010 Ryder Cup, crunched the digits and determined the best possible pairings based on player style and the strengths and weaknesses of their games.

The Italian went rooting through past Ryder Cups and discovered the importance on which players teed off on which holes in foursomes, and the significance of being up in a match as early as the third hole.

In these last two Ryder Cups, Europe haven’t been perfect nor won every match, but there is clearly a method to the magnificence.

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What did you make of the Rory McIlroy-Ryder Cup fans exchange? How do you rate the Rory McIlroy-Shane Lowry Ryder Cup pair? What did you think of the Rory McIlroy-Shane Lowry celebrations at the Ryder Cup? Tell us on X!