It is undeniable that at the 45th Ryder Cup, fan fervor turned ugly at times, with some crossing the line several times. Even the PGA of America’s first-tee emcee got involved with the heckling, as Rory McIlroy faced the brunt of it. Several such moments attracted two kinds of responses: one from the PGA of America’s CEO and another from its president.

In an exclusive interview, PGA of America president Don Rea downplayed vile fan behavior, claiming, “I haven’t heard some of that. I am sure it’s happened.” He acknowledged that McIlroy handled it “amazingly,” glossed over the severity, and concluded with a vague assertion that “golf is the engine of good.” However, the CEO of the PGA of America was more careful with his words when faced with a similar question. 

In his interview with Golf Channel, the CEO, Derek Sprague, said whatever happened last week is “not the values of the PGA of America or 30 plus thousand PGA golf professionals that work every day in this game to bring joy and laughter and fun to golf.” He continued, “And certainly, we did not witness that last year. There’s no place for it in the Ryder Cup, no place for it in the game of golf.” Sprague then added that the PGA “certainly are not happy with what happened last week.” 

Weeks before, publications fueled the frenzy, wondering if Europeans could “handle the heat.” The hecklers were hyped. So, how did the PGA try to handle that? Sprague stated that they hired “law enforcement and other security agencies, and we certainly did that here for Bethpage.” That is indeed true. NYPD and Suffolk County Police were involved in the event, along with “private security companies, to deal with the amount of fans, which is typical of a Ryder Cup,” Sprague stated.

Sprague might have been careful in his approach towards this particular issue, but Keegan Bradley was more blunt in his verdict. When asked about his thoughts on the situation, he replied, “I thought the fans were passionate,” and added that it might not have been nice for the fans to see their “home team being beaten.” It received a similar backlash as in Don Rea’s case.

On the other hand, despite the PGA’s efforts to keep the crowd in check, heckling persisted into Sunday’s singles. Still, security measures were visibly in place. With over 50,000 fans per day, tensions flared as Europe took control, leading to one arrest and multiple ejections. While crowd incidents aren’t uncommon, arrests are rare in golf—and this went beyond a minor fracas, as we saw several times. Even McIlroy shared his thoughts on the same.

Rory McIlroy speaks up about the security at Bethpage

Following the Sunday singles and during a post-match press conference, Rory McIlroy shed light on the heightened security surrounding him, labeling it “insane.” In his post-match press conference, McIlroy said of the security, “The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane. Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be a physical altercation or anything like that, apart from maybe Tommy and Rosey up to the 16th tee yesterday.”

However, he downplayed the threat of physical altercations, except for a heated exchange between Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau‘s caddie on the 16th green on Saturday. On the other hand, he agreed that whatever happened was the result of just a small bunch of unruly fans. Not all the 50,000 fans.

“But look, it was — there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behavior. Look, it’s a minority of the crowd. It’s not the majority,” McIlroy stated. “The majority of people here are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest. But you know, there was a small subset of people who behaved a little bit differently than that,” he added.

Of course, that was a more thoughtful answer to the reckless fans’ behavior and the PGA of America’s efforts, considering the number of abuses thrown his way. Personal jabs like, “How’s your divorce going?” and “Your ex is looking for you” crossed a line, forcing pros like Tom Watson to issue a direct apology not only to McIlroy but also to his European teammates. Regardless, the conversation about this Ryder Cup is here to stay. At least when it comes to the fans.