When Crowd Behaviour Oversteps the Mark

In this week’s View from the Fairway, Derek Clements tackles the growing plague of abuse in sport, including football and tennis, and how it reared its ugly head at the Ryder Cup.

WE LIVE in an era when social media seems to have given an ugly minority the right to feel that they can abuse sportsmen and women without fear of repercussions.

There are also those who seem to believe it is fine to vent their spleens openly.

You will no doubt remember that Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo was racially abused at Anfield in Liverpool’s opening fixture of this season’s Premier League. Fortunately, the perpetrator was quickly identified and dealt with. But that is rare.

Bakayo Saka and Marcus Rashford were targeted after missing penalties in the final of the Euros.

A man has been arrested over "disgusting and appalling" racist abuse sent over social media to England footballer Jess Carter. Police began investigating after receiving reports that the messages had been sent to the 27-year-old defender during the UEFA Women's Euros in July.

Tennis star Novak Djokovic has been targeted on a regular basis, having to resort to having fans removed. Katie Boulter has opened her heart about the abuse she has received on a social media. Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina received a torrent of abuse after losing in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open in August - it came from individuals who had bet on her to win.

Professional sport is known for banter. England’s cricketers will be heading to Australia on the Ashes tour knowing that the Aussies are going to be in their ears from the off. It is part and parcel of the sport and how players deal with it tells you a lot about them.

You may well be asking what on earth all of this has to do with golf. If you watched the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black you will know why.

Ahead of the event there were concerns about the way the crowd would behave. There were many who hoped that charging $750 for a daily ticket and $20 for a pint of beer might weed out the worst of the trolls, that perhaps they would not be able to afford to attend the event.

As things turned out, the behaviour of a significant number of Americans turned out to be worse than any of us had imagined it would be, even in our nightmares. At times, it made the event extremely difficult to watch. Banter is one thing, but delivering personal abuse as a golfer is an addressing a golf ball and about to hit a shot is totally unacceptable.

Legendary golfer Tom Watson said he was ashamed and issued an apology - sadly, the PGA of America failed to follow suit until four days after the event.

Now let me make it perfectly clear before I go any further that when you are the away team in any sport you know you are not going to be in for an easy ride. If you have ever attended a football match you will know that players are routinely ridiculed for missing chances and making mistakes.

And when the Americans step on to European soil in the Ryder Cup they know that they are going to receive a hostile reception, that their poor shots are going to be cheered wildly, that they are going to get some stick if they miss short putts.

But there is a line - and it was consistently crossed at Bethpage Black. Unsurprisingly, their main target was McIlroy and that is because he is Europe’s best player and their undoubted talisman. The Northern Irishman would have arrived in New York knowing that he was going to be singled out for special treatment. But this was way beyond the pale. And it was constant. When they had a USGA-appoiinted announcer actively encouraging the fans to give Rory McIlroy a bad time, what did they expect was going to happen?

McIlroy eventually snapped and swore at a spectator who called out while he was addressing the ball.

He said: "I chirped back 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. It was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance."

They also turned on McIlroy’s wife, Erica, who just happens to be an American but was out there openly supporting her husband. McIlroy condemned the "unacceptable and abusive behaviour" after she was hit by a drink thrown by an American fan. It happened on the 17th tee at Bethpage during McIlroy's Saturday afternoon match alongside his good friend Shane Lowry.

"It should be off-limits, but it wasn't this week," said the Northern Irishman after Europe's 15-13 win.  "Erica is fine. She's a strong woman. She handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we're going to have a good time celebrating [this win]."

Lowry added: "I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing."

At one point McIlroy told somebody to “f*** off” and his use of the f-word was pretty liberal throughout the three days. As understandable as his reaction was, I have to say that he did himself no favours. What the Americans seemed to fail to realise was that poking this particular bear was almost certain to backfire, and it certainly did as McIlroy produced his very best golf over the first two days.

When the dust settles, the powers-that-be will no doubt be taking a long hard look at the crowd behaviour and asking themselves if they could have done more to prevent it. Several people were thrown out but only after McIlroy and Lowry had identified the trouble-makers to police and stewards.

In two years time the Ryder Cup will be played in Ireland. It is a safe bet that the American team will receive an “enthusiastic” welcome!

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