If last Sunday, Europe won hearts by defeating the USA on their home turf, then Rory McIlroy took the bigger piece of the heart. Welcomed by a boisterous crowd on Bethpage Black, McIlroy persevered like anything, taking his team to defend the trophy with 15-13. It was a historic feat that will be remembered for years to come — and so will McIlroy’s tenacity. And while many on the Internet can claim that the Northern Irishman deserved the hate because of his response to the crowd, Brandel Chamblee begs to differ.

It felt like the New Yorkers had entered the course with a pre-decided agenda on their minds. The moment McIlroy stepped on the green, there were massive chants of “F U Rory!” As stunned other Europeans were, many of them expected the crowd to behave like that. McIlroy, trying not to act much on it, smiled slyly and gave a flying kiss to the audience. But he was not so polite throughout. As the tournament progressed, so did the crowd’s intense hate. That’s when McIlroy changed the script.

In one instance, he flipped the bird, and in the other, he pointed at the crowd and said, “F*** you!” Many didn’t like his antics, as social media was filled with a lot of hate. But as per Chamblee, it was the “boiling point,” as he said, “He [Rory] said, ‘You know, I can’t tell you when I decide to confront the crowd or when I don’t.’ He was like, you know, a couple times this week, ‘I just had enough.’ It was a boiling point. It was a boiling point,” he said on the Favorite Chamblee Podcast.

And it only makes sense as to why McIlroy would say that. As long as the crowd attacked him and his game, he endured it. But slowly, things got ugly. As per reports, there were homophobic slurs thrown around casually. At one point, when he was trying to make a point, the crowd could be heard yelling in chorus, Amanda Balionis‘ name, a jab at his linkup rumors with the CBS reporter last year.

Moreover, the situation got out of control when an unnamed person threw a beer bottle at McIlroy’s wife, Erica Stoll. “They were hurling insults at Rory’s wife. She never brought it up to anybody like she was aggrieved or anything, which all class to her, all credit to her. But yeah, insults hurled at her,” recalled Chamblee.

In fact, even the Ryder Cup officials did not spare the Europeans. One mic announcer kept urging the crowd to curse McIlroy, and recently, another downplayed the entire incident, citing examples of other sports where it was worse. But what they forgot to mention was how the crowd’s behavior got so tense that people were being constantly removed, and police troops had to step in to manage the situation.

But what impressed Chamblee was the way the Europeans handled the situation and emerged victorious. “The fact that he was able to play as good as he was is such a testament to the preparation that Luke and his team had these guys get ready for the abuse they were going to get.”

Team Europe took a bunch of methods to prepare themselves. Rory McIlroy himself revealed that they have been practicing with VR headsets that are equipped with the raunchy crowd noise so that they could desensitize themselves. On the other hand, Luke Donald had appointed people to hurl abuse at these players while they were practicing. In fact, they even called an American comedian to perform and roast the Europeans while they blared “USA USA” on loudspeakers. The result of all this came through. Europe won the Ryder Cup.

But of course, the intensity of all of this was not expected by them. Apart from McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Robert MacIntyre faced a lot of abuse, with many directed at their physique. Shane Lowry once lost his cool, too, with all the comments clouding him when he was trying to putt. Even Justin Thomas and Cameron Young had to step in to shush the New Yorkers at times.

“How disgusting. Let’s just say you’re out there with your – you take your kids out there. You get in the first stand, go out there, get in the train, whatever. You get in the stands at four, ready to go. You’re going to watch the best players in the world, and they start a profane, insulting chant. Rory McIlroy, all he does is handle this insult in class,” Chamblee noted.

And he is not the only one who thinks McIlroy acted accordingly. Even Dame Laura Davies said that McIlroy gave the perfect response to the crowd. She believed that McIlroy “got his message across.”

But not many think along the same lines.

Paul Azinger calls out Rory McIlroy’s hypocrisy

Paul Azinger did not hold back when it came to Rory McIlroy’s Ryder Cup remarks. In the post-match conference, McIlroy told the media that golf should be “held to a higher standard of decorum.” But Azinger thinks that this was hypocritical on McIlroy’s part when he himself flipped the fans and yelled the F word at them. “You can’t say the fans need to behave better and then, in the meantime, lay them to waste. Can’t be on both sides,” said Azinger on the SubPar podcast.

While he expressed his opinion, he also reminded listeners that this was not the first time McIlroy had lost his cool. He recalled the HatGate incident that took place in Rome in 2023 when McIlroy had a brawl with Patrick Cantlay’s caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay.

But no matter what people say, to McIlroy, his response at Bethpage was not wrong at all. “We shut them up by our performance and how we played. You know, I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times. [But] we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part I felt like we did that.”

In the end, the winner takes it all. And in this case, Europe surely did.