Will A Few Fans Ruin The 2016 Ryder Cup Outcome?
/It was a glorious Saturday of Ryder Cup golf. All of the usual ingredients were in action to produce a day of drama unlike anything else in the sport. But the looming sense of an impending debacle can't be ignored.
There is nothing wrong with rooting and cheering after a ball has been struck. Hope for your team. Hope for America!
But then there is what we've seen all too often at Hazeltine during the 2016 Ryder Cup: fans gradually interfering with the competition by (A) making noise or comments as a player is preparing to play, or (B) resorting to vile language and heckling. An example:
More embarrassing stuff. Drunk behind 12 tee won't let Stenson hit, even with Spieth waving at him. Stenson hits poor drive. Slams club.
— Dave Shedloski (@DaveShedloski) October 1, 2016
There were ejections Saturday according to NBC's Dan Hicks, but the mostly-nice people of Minnesota are in danger of having their Ryder Cup tainted by an incident that impacts the matches. The American players and their entourages, who have put themselves in position to win, could have the outcome tainted if the situation is not reigned in.
Cutting off alcohol sales by noon tomorrow would help. The PGA of America undoubtedly has weighed the risk-reward elements, and plans to go for the green no matter how discouraging the signs.
A few Tweets from Sunday, including this from Christine Brennan who filed this story with Martin Rogers about the Rory McIlroy incident.
Rory McIlroy confronts fan, says to remove him. No physical contact. Marshal tells me fan to be removed immediately. pic.twitter.com/namR3844jX
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) October 1, 2016
A video of the incident as well.
**John Huggan writes for GolfDigest.com:
Thankfully, physical confrontation has yet to darken the Ryder Cup’s door. But it would be best not to get complacent, even if so much of the yelling and screaming has more to do with adolescent attention-seeking than anything else. Which is not to say that the nonsense is confined to the young. The gentleman screaming “go, go, go” as a European ball trickled slowly down a slope away from the hole on the eighth green was easily into his 60s. Such vein-popping exhortations towards an inanimate object are not the actions of a rational person. Or, one must suppose, someone who has played golf for any length of time.
