Bradley ‘did not’ help curb ‘appalling’ abuse at Ryder Cup – McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has claimed US captain Keegan Bradley could have used his platform to rein in abusive crowd behavior at the Ryder Cup last year, but he didn’t take the chance.

Europe defeated the United States 15-13 in Bethpage Black to retain the cup and become the first away team to win the event since 2012.

However, they did so in the face of relentless harassment in New York, where Erika, the wife of Northern Irish golfer McIlroy, was injured by a drink thrown at her by an American fan, and they and their young daughter Poppy were subjected to “horrific” abuse.

“We knew we were going to New York and we were going to take a lot of abuse, a lot of abuse,” McIlroy said during an appearance on The Overlap., external

“Look, I don’t care if people say what they say to me.”

McIlroy said he was able to get away with the MC joining Bethpage with an obscenity chant about him, while she warmed up the crowd by saying it was “nothing compared to the other things we’ve heard.”

“My wife, Erica, says she’s a grown woman, she’s strong, she can handle it. But then when it started getting to your family, I heard things about my daughter that I couldn’t even repeat here. It’s horrific,” McIlroy said.

“Kegan and I have talked about it. You have to play for home, for sure,” the world number two added.

“But during the competition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the things we heard on the field, there was an opportunity for Keegan or some of his teammates to say: ‘Let’s calm down here. Let’s try to play this match in the right spirit.”

“Some of them did, but Keegan obviously had the biggest platform of the week as captain. I feel like he could have said something on a Friday or Saturday night, but he didn’t.”