Stepping into the hostile New York crowd was not quite what the Europeans had prepared for. Months of training with VR Headsets and employing comedians to roast them in practice to simulate crowd aggression, everything failed. The loud boos, the personal jabs, and even instances of physical aggression stamped this year’s Ryder Cup as one to be remembered, and certainly not for the right reasons. Especially for one particular player.

Rory McIlroy was the one to suffer the most at Bethpage. While some level of heckling was expected, the lowness to which the crowd stopped was shocking. Hally Leadbetter, one of golf’s leading hosts, weighed in about the same in an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports.

“I think Rory McIlroy said it best a couple of days ago, where he’s like, ‘Listen, when you’re out at the Ryder Cup, you should be rooting for your team and supporting your team, not so jeering at the other team.’ And I think that’s so right. That’s not golf. That’s not what this is about. This isn’t hockey. This isn’t football. This is meant to be a game of respect.”

After Sunday’s singles, when Europe streamrolled the USA with a 15-13 win, McIlroy was blunt in his feedback. “I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.” His statements had a personal angst, because the crowd did not spare him — or his wife — a bit on the course.

That line may have been crossed when, as McIlroy was walking off after winning one of the sessions and a beer bottle was thrown at Erica Stoll, leaving the couple shocked. There were even reports of xenophobic and homophobic comments casually being dropped around with no caution. And hey, a certain level of jeering is the expected norm at the Ryder Cup; it always has been. But when the lines between personal and professional got blurred, that is when eyebrows were raised. Leadbetter puts it best.

“I don’t mind the odd boo ‘You suck’! as they call out the name on the first tee, but you’re not supposed to…just berating somebody and like hurling very personal insults at someone while they’re trying to play golf. [It] is just so uncalled for,” she remarked.

“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing,” said Lowry as per ESPN. Once the matter seemed to be out of hand, police troops were called in at the course to control the overly excited crowd.

“Yes, the atmosphere should make it much more difficult,” Leadbetter added, “but not like you know, squeaking rubber ducks in people’s back swings, like what are we doing? So yeah, I thought that was a little uncalled for.”

Hally also addressed Shane Lowry’s comments.

“A lot nicer than this one,” said Shane Lowry wryly when asked what it might be like to defend the Ryder Cup again in 2027 – that time on Irish soil. One can’t really blame him for saying so. If Team Europe took anything else away from Bethpage Black this year, apart from the trophy, it was the sympathy.

Team USA, which suffered an embarrassing loss on its own turf, could not even muster so much as a crying shoulder for its predicament. The reason? Of course, the crowd. So, one can’t blame Lowry for believing so; at least one of golf’s leading hosts, Hally Leadbetter, does not.

In an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports, Leadbetter, who was present at Bethpage, said, “I think when Shane Lowry was interviewed at the end, they said, ‘What is it going to be like to play the Ryder Cup at you know, Adare Manor a couple of years?’ And he’s like ‘a lot nicer than here,’ which for sure that’s always the case, right?”

The 2027 Ryder Cup is set to take place in Adare Manor, Ireland — Lowry’s home turf. So yes, it will be a lot better for him (if he retains his position on the team) and other European’s on the course, who will enjoy being the crowd’s favorite. Much like how it was two years ago in Rome.

And it is not just Leadbetter who thinks this way. Another notable presence on the course echoed a similar sentiment a few days back.

Former LPGA Pro is embarrassed by the crowd’s behaviour

With so much heaviness that unfolded at the 2025 Ryder Cup, the away team’s victory almost got buried beneath the noise – quite literally. Like Hally Leadbetter, former LPGA player Michelle Wie West was also disturbed by the scenes at Bethpage Black. West, who has been a part of similar high-stakes tournaments thanks to the Solheim Cup, could not help but apologize on the crowd’s behalf.

“Fans sometimes don’t see us as living, feeling human beings,” she said in an interview with Front Office Sports Today. “I just feel like a lot of times they just don’t see us as these people that have feelings, that have families, you know. So I do feel really bad for the European team and how they were treated. I feel like, as an American, I feel like I should apologize.”

Like Leadbetter, she acknowledges the behaviour that usually accompanies such events, but at the same time accepts that several lines were crossed.

Hally Leadbetter and Michelle Wie West’s comments come at a time when several people, responsible for the crowd, conveniently pulled themselves off. Whether it is Keegan Bradley who dismissed the behaviour as mere “passion” or Ryder Cup officials, who laughed off the jabs undertaken.