McIlroy: "The players are certainly held to a higher standard than other sports, so why wouldn't our fan base?"
/I’m not sure what to make of Rory McIlroy’s pre-Tour Championship remarks on Bryson DeChambeau and fan behavior, but suggesting professional golfers are held to a higher standard than other athletes suggests he’s a bit out of touch with the present day realities. One where other leagues have testing protocols for COVID-19 and stricter rules for those choosing not to be vaccinated, while pro golfers now have to deal with neither in the face of both COVID and now, bilateral pneumonia.
Anyway, his answer:
Q. Do you feel that fan behavior has become less respectful and if so what do you attribute it to?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I do, a little bit. I think I sort of know what you're getting at on the back of last week and some things that were said over the past few weeks, I guess. Yeah, a little bit. I think it's different. As golfers, there's a very thin rope that separates us from the fans, and then you hit a shot off line, and you have to go into the fans to hit it. So we get a little closer to them than some other sports.
Yeah, I think some of it crosses the line. I think there's a certain, I think certain other sports culture has fed into our game and fed into the fan base that's definitely affected it, and people will make the argument that, well, it happens in every other sport. But I would say that we're not any other sport and I think golf should hold itself to a higher standard. I mean, the players are certainly held to a higher standard than other sports, so why wouldn't our fan base.
This was more sensible and sensical on Bryson’s plight:
Q. Everybody seems to be on Bryson's case at the moment. Do you feel any sympathy for him or do you think he brought it on himself?
RORY MCILROY: I certainly feel some sympathy for him because I certainly, I don't think that you should be ostracized or criticized for being different, and I think we have all known from the start that Bryson is different and he is not going to conform to the way people want him to be. He is his own person. He thinks his own thoughts and everyone has a right to do that.
There are certainly things that he has done in the past that have brought some of this stuff on himself. I'm not saying that he's completely blameless in this. But at the same time, I think he has been getting a pretty rough go of it of late and it's actually pretty sad to see because he, deep down, I think, is a nice person and all he wants to do is try to be the best golfer he can be. And it just seems like every week something else happens and I would say it's pretty tough to be Bryson DeChambeau right now.
And I don't know if anyone else on TOUR has spoken up for him, but I definitely, I definitely he feel for him a little bit. And I agree, I don't think he's completely blameless in all this, but at the same time, I think he's trying to become better and he's trying to learn from his mistakes and I think everyone should give him a chance to try to do that.
