McILROY TAKES NO NONSENSE WITH ROWDY CROWD
Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy proved to be a formidable foursomes pairing once more with their fourth straight win. (Getty/Ryder Cup)
By Paul Gallagher
“Guys, shut the fuck up.”
Not a line for effect, but most definitely a reaction, a controlled reaction at that. Yet, in those five tasty words, delivered with utter conviction, it epitomised everything that this high-octane showpiece means to every single gladiator on show at Bethpage.
Heckles, trash talk, and complete verbal diarrhoea have been aplenty across the Bethpage campus this week, so when Rory McIlroy was forced to step off his approach to 16 during the day two foursomes, it was par for the course. Golf’s elite know how to shut out the noise, they have their processes – but every now and again the pressure valve needs a wee release.
The timing was also relevant. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood had just come off two sloppy holes to halve their advantage back to two up with three play against Harris English and Collin Morikawa. It surely meant McIlroy’s antenna was more alert than any other time in the match when the Fleetwood Mac paring had been coasting all morning.
And so it came. McIlroy had heard just enough peripheral guff for this particular sitting when trying to pull the trigger on his wedge approach from the semi-rough on the right side of the fairway. And for the briefest of seconds the ice-cold demeanour from Northern Ireland’s Grand Slammer slipped.
The five-time Major winner simply stepped back from his shot, turned to the mass of red, white and blue and said: “Guys, shut the fuck up.” Picked up by cameras and mics it was everywhere immediately and of course the usual “Apologies…” line followed from the Sky Sports commentary booth.
In that moment, it demonstrated everything. It told us that these guys are also human as well as fairway gladiators, but more than that it told us that this thing they call the Ryder Cup means everything to these players, regardless if one half is getting paid or not.
It was said and done in a matter of seconds, and McIlroy had the perfect response.
He duly re-set and eventually pulled the trigger and his wedge bounced and settled within three feet of the pin to set up the birdie opportunity for Tommy. When their opponents could only make par, Fleetwood rolled home the birdie to close out the fourth Ryder Cup foursomes win for Fleetwood Mac (when factoring in Rome 2023).
Speaking about the crowd hostility immediately after the win, McIlroy said: “You really have to focus on the task in hand. I think in the team format in the foursomes and fourballs you know you can stick together with your partner and it makes it a little bit easier.”
And Fleetwood was delighted to line out with McIlroy once more.
“We loved playing in Rome together, our games match each other very well and we’re very close off the course as well. Yeah, I’m just the lucky one that gets to play alongside Rory McIlroy in the foursomes and I’ll that any day,” said Fleetwood.
McIlroy added: “What Tommy just said, the feeling is mutual. We had a great time in Rome and we’ve been able to back that up with two great wins here. Excited where we are just now, just got to keep the foot down.”
As this latest nonsense gets scribbled, Europe are still very much in the ascendency, but these Ryder Cups they ebb and they flow, and you can’t help feeling USA will have some sort of kicker before the Sunday singles.
You’ve got to love the Ryder Cup. Nothing else like it.