It’s up to you, New York.
Is this Ryder Cup going to be the most horrific thing anyone has ever seen, or are we talking this presumably hostile atmosphere at Bethpage into existence?
Everyone is saying the same thing: the players are going to get abused by rowdy New York sports fans, known for wearing their hearts on their sleeves and their beers down the front of their shirts.
Bethpage on Long Island has held three majors and some PGA Tour events, but not a tournament with the industrial build-out and, frankly, the intense pressure that a Ryder Cup brings.
Pressure brings bad shots, bad shots cause crowd reactions and sometimes, those crowd reactions evolve into abuse. Bad abuse.
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We must expect the absolute worst behaviour, I’m afraid, says Steve Carroll
“It’s New York. What do you expect when you’re half choking it away?”
If it wasn’t a big shock to Brooks Koepka when the crowd turned on him – chanting ‘DJ DJ’ as he threatened to unravel during the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship, it certainly was me. I was used to golf course crowds acting with a bit more decorum.
It had been savage too during the US Open at Shinnecock, in nearby Long Island, the previous year. Parts of the crowd got after Ian Poulter, cheering when his putts missed.
In the Big Apple, sports just hit differently.
The Battle of Brookline is widely considered the nadir of Ryder Cup history. Some spectators in Boston were unacceptable throughout, but particularly as the Americans rallied during the final day singles.
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Colin Montgomerie, the target of much of the abuse as Europe’s talisman, said his father left the course – so upset was he by the treatment his son was getting.
But 26 years on, a bit of me worries that everything we’ve seen before will pale into significance compared to what could transpire at Farmingdale.
New Yorkers are brash by reputation and I’ve no issue if the Ryder Cup is rowdy and raucous. It was at Medinah and it helped produce an epic contest.
There is a line, though, and the authorities on site at Bethpage need to crack down firmly and decisively on any alcohol fuelled or anti-social behaviour.
I want the Bethpage Ryder Cup to be lively, but I also want it to be remembered for the golf – not for the antics of a boozed-up minority who’ll drag our sport’s reputation through the gutter.
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Violent hooliganism will not break out this week. It’s golf, so relax for heaven’s sake, states Dan Murphy
This Ryder Cup promises to be nothing more than a tea party.
And not of the Boston variety, when, in 1773, the Americans rose up in protest at the taxes imposed on them from afar by the British parliament.
Eight years later, that eventually led to the establishment of a new, independent nation: the United States of America.
Don’t expect anything quite so dramatic in Farmingdale this week. I suspect we have got a little carried away with the cliché of the New York sporting crowd. This is not exactly going to be a bad day in the Bronx.
Yes, the home crowds will be colourful, passionate, noisy and – in some cases – inebriated. There will be some heckling. There will be some industrial language. There will be plenty of whooping.
But don’t confuse the Ryder Cup with the Old Firm at a packed-out Parkhead, a spiteful south London derby between Millwall and Crystal Palace or the Superclasico when Boca Juniors take on River Plate.
I don’t exactly expect to see fights breaking out in the Bethpage bleachers, and it’s not like the European fans will have to conceal their colours, or sit in their own segregated stand.
The trickiest element for the Europeans is likely to be when the ‘quiet please’ signs are held aloft by the marshals, and the boorish voice of an individual can be clearly heard.
That’s why Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson and others have invited the crowd to keep cheering as they play their shots in recent Ryder Cups.
Apart from that, their biggest challenge will be trying to keep up with the likes of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and his friends – and be genuinely competitive on foreign soil for the first time since 2012.
NOW READ: Justin Rose: Grown men were screaming at me when we won the Ryder Cup at Medinah
How will American Ryder Cup fans behave this week? What is your experience of American Ryder Cup fans? Will it just be American Ryder Cup fans who are the problem? Tell us on X!
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