It was supposed to be a dream gig. Instead, Heather McMahan‘s gig last weekend at Bethpage turned into an internet firestorm. The comedian and podcaster found herself at the center of a Ryder Cup controversy last weekend after being caught on video echoing a now-infamous chant aimed at Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy. But now, she’s ready to clear the air and is finally breaking her silence.

On the latest episode of her Absolutely Not podcast, McMahan set the record straight about her role in the chaotic first-tee scene at Bethpage Black, after fans started chanting “F— you, Rory.” The video, which quickly spread across social media, led to her being relieved of her emcee duties and being accused by many of starting the chant. But McMahan insists that’s just not true. “So, I was hired to entertain at the first tee… the word I had gotten from the team was we need to get everybody hyped, hyped, hype,” McMahan said on the Podcast.

But to her surprise, things got “really intense, really quick,” and what started as playful crowd work turned into something far more aggressive. Things got out of hand really quickly, and the media spun the narrative that she started the chants about McIlroy. “I would just like to say I immediately did not like the energy and the vibe from when that started to happen. I will take full responsibility and sincerely apologize to Rory, Team Europe… but I did not start the chant. I would just like that narrative to get out there,” McMahan said.

The backlash was swift. Within hours, the PGA of America released a statement saying McMahan had “stepped down” and extended an apology to Rory McIlroy and Team Europe. But according to Heather McMahan, the energy on Saturday was already teetering before things went sideways.

McMahan explained that she was brought in to entertain and hype up the American crowd during the Ryder Cup, an event she’d attended when it was last hosted in Rome. She spoke of the crowd there, too, to be “rowdy and obnoxious,” but “in a positive way.” McMahan expected a similar atmosphere at Bethpage this year, but according to her, things “turned pretty sour.”

She described the controversial moment as a blur — part shock, part confusion, and a lot of ‘what the hell is happening.’ But even in the moment, she knew it had crossed a line. “It went from us trying to be fun and funny and like get it going to immediately just was negative and feeling really kind of toxic,” McMahan confessed.

Realizing the situation had spiraled, McMahan said she immediately reached out behind the scenes. “I contacted the European Tour, apologized to Rory, and apologized to the European team. I was like, ‘Hey, it was never my intention to be a part of something unsportsmanlike,'” she said. “I thought that was over,” she added. But it wasn’t. By Sunday morning, headlines claimed she had incited the chant — a narrative that McMahan strongly refutes. “I woke up Sunday and it was like I had started an insurrection,” she said, adding that it got blown out of proportion.

While she owns up to the slip-up, McMahan wants fans and critics to understand one thing — “It would never be my intention to be malicious, to be gross, even to put that kind of energy out there,” she said. “I’m a huge fan of golf. Huge fan of Rory.”But McMahan’s experience is just a small flashpoint in a much bigger conversation — one that’s been building for years about the Ryder Cup’s increasingly unruly atmosphere and the line between passionate fandom and flat-out disrespect.

The Ryder Cup’s Rowdy Fans Evolution 

Heather McMahan’s controversial moment may have made headlines, but it’s only the latest in a growing pattern of unruly Ryder Cup behavior — and Rory McIlroy has been caught in the crossfire before. Back in 2016 at Hazeltine, the five-time major winner was so fed up with a heckler that he asked security to remove the spectator, later admitting he had to take medicine for a headache caused by the relentless noise. And that was before the Bethpage Black crowd took things to an entirely new level.

The Ryder Cup has long walked a fine line between passionate patriotism and outright hostility. From Brookline in ’99 — when Colin Montgomerie’s own father left the course over fan abuse — to this year’s spectacle on Long Island, the tournament has increasingly seen over-the-line heckling. “We knew the crowds would be like that,” said former PGA of America president Ted Bishop.

But as Bishop and others have pointed out, what’s most concerning isn’t just where this happened — it’s how normalized it’s become. The days of respectful silence after a missed putt or subtle applause for great play — even from the opposing side — seem long gone. Whether it’s fans heckling McIlroy at other events or hurling F-bombs on the first tee, golf is facing a cultural shift. As McIlroy himself put it, “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.”

And yet, as McIlroy and Shane Lowry fired back with a few expletives of their own, it’s clear — the Ryder Cup is no longer just a gentleman’s game. It’s become a battleground — and not always a classy one.