The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony and practice round.
A former New Yorker of note, Jeff Van Gundy, reached a conclusion about the intensity of American markets after decades of traveling as an NBA coach.
“You have Boston, New York and Philly,” he said, “and everywhere else is Club Med.”
Starting Friday, there will be no poolside downtime at Bethpage Black, an angry and outsized beast of a public golf course. It has been 90 years since the New York metropolitan area hosted a Ryder Cup (Ridgewood Country Club, Paramus, N.J., 1935), and more than a quarter century since this international slugfest was staged in one of those markets Van Gundy was talking about (The Country Club, Brookline, Mass., 1999). The locals, who have not celebrated a major men’s team championship since 2011, either, have waited a long time to express their passionate feelings about this one.
The tri-state area is tired of losing. Throw in the fact that the European team are the defending champs and winners of 13 of 19 Ryder Cups, and you are most likely to find on Long Island this weekend the very definition of a hostile environment.
That’s the way it should be.
That’s the way it needs to be.
When it comes to fan fervor, the scheduled appearance of President Trump is not likely to be a major difference maker either way. As Justin Rose was recently quoted as saying by Sky Sports, “New Yorkers are crazy, and I think they become sort of caricatures of themselves. I think they feel like they have to live up to that reputation. So, fully expect absolute chaos out there.”
The Ryder Cup is the one competition in golf that should be played in front of an intense, feverish crowd, the kind that can’t be captured by the virtual reality headsets European captain Luke Donald gave his players. It should be a most uncomfortable arena for the away team on both sides of the Atlantic. There is nothing harder in sports right now than winning a Ryder Cup on the road, and New Yorkers will almost certainly make sure that reality remains intact.
At Bethpage, Europe versus the USA should take on the vibe of an old-school Yankees-Red Sox series in the Bronx.
The fight of the century without the punches.
Ali-Frazier without the pain.
“Go out there and play like you have the country on your back– because you do.” #GoUSA pic.twitter.com/Tg4PxlDuLK
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 22, 2025
And by the way, this has never been a one-way street shaped by ugly Americanism.
“Having caddied in the last Ryder Cup in Rome,” said Jim “Bones” Mackay, now part of NBC’s broadcast team, “I can tell you that the U.S. team was getting absolutely blasted out there by the crowds. You can’t hold 100 people accountable for something one guy says, but you’re going to hear things during Ryder Cup week that you will not hear anywhere else, and to a large degree, it’s not even close.
“You can’t overstate how tough the crowds were in Italy. … Eleven of the 12 European players were in Rome, and they heard the roughing up the American team took there, and they should expect to be on the receiving end in New York.”
Mackay, of course, was on the receiving end of Rory McIlroy’s parking-lot meltdown a couple of years ago, an innocent bystander who happened to be the nearest available American while the Northern Irishman was raging about a different U.S. caddie. Joe LaCava violated Rory’s airspace on the 18th green while taunting the same gallery that had teased his player, Patrick Cantlay, who had reportedly declined to wear a team hat to protest the lack of player compensation at such a big event.
Mackay didn’t want to relive that incident, but was willing to talk about the Ryder Cup that best informs what awaits the Europeans this week — Brookline in 1999.
That was a Fenway Park crowd that verbally harassed the opposing team, especially Colin Montgomerie, and compelled the European players to say nasty things about the American fans (and players) after the U.S. pulled off the mother of all Sunday comebacks. Nobody wants a repeat of that this week.
The European Ryder Cup team took offense to the American fan behavior at Brookline in 1999. (Jeff Haynes / AFP via Getty Images)
So I did a quick survey of Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s caddie back then, and Justin Leonard, who drained the most famous putt in Ryder Cup history at The Country Club, a 45-footer that turned the 17th green into Times Square on New Year’s Eve while Spain’s José María Olazábal waited to try (and fail) to extend the match. I also spoke with Rhode Island native Billy Andrade, a dedicated New England sports fan who has spent nearly 40 years on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour and who was part of the Brookline gallery and the U.S. Open field at Bethpage in 2002.
The last northeastern gallery in this competition assailed Montgomerie so relentlessly during his match with Payne Stewart that the Scotsman’s father walked off the course on the front nine. “Mrs. Doubtfire” was about the nicest thing they were calling Monty.
Stewart had one unruly spectator removed and told Montgomerie to let him know if anyone else needed to be policed. “Some of our fans are out of control and it’s not appropriate,” Stewart said. With the U.S. victory already secured by Leonard’s make and Olazábal’s miss, Stewart picked up Monty’s marker on the 18th and told him, “Enough’s enough,” slapping a loss on the American’s Ryder Cup record. This merciful act of sportsmanship came a month before Stewart’s tragic death on a chartered jet.
At the time, this act did little to temper European reactions to the behavior of many Americans on site, including the players, wives and caddies whose celebration showed zero regard for Olazábal’s pending 25-foot attempt to keep his team alive — the Spaniard had already gotten into it with a fan on the 17th.
Paul Lawrie said that the hecklers “shouldn’t be allowed to go to golf tournaments.” Montgomerie said that not even the sincerest of apologies “can make amends for what they did.” Sam Torrance called the fireworks at the 17th and the surrounding environment “about the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Mackay, Leonard and Andrade said that while they didn’t witness what specifically happened to Montgomerie, they didn’t think the Brookline crowd was generally out of control. “The first two days it wasn’t rowdy,” Andrade said, “because we were getting our asses kicked. The fans really got into it Sunday, when it became a frenzy.”
So 26 years later, some boundaries should be established for what is permissible fan conduct and what is not. Sergio Garcia didn’t make this European team and that’s probably for the best — he was mocked so mercilessly during the 2002 U.S. Open here, Garcia was inspired to give the fans New York’s favorite one-digit salute.
An occasional middle finger is part of the local package. As for what else is in play or out of bounds at the 2025 Ryder Cup, here is a quick guide:
Booing the road team during first-tee introductions? My guest panelists aren’t big fans of it, but booing the opponent is a time-honored tradition in sports and a show of respect to a worthy adversary. Booing the home team is when you run into problems.
• Verdict: In play.
Cheering if McIlroy or a teammate hits a drive out onto the Southern State Parkway or spins a ball into the water at the eighth hole? “I think that would be disappointing,” Mackay said.
However, I subscribe to Leonard’s line of thinking when it comes to cheering a road team’s misfire. “The shot has been played already, and that’s part of rooting for your team. I have no issue with that,” Leonard said. Nor should anyone else.
• Verdict: In play.
Intentionally making noise in the middle of the enemy’s backswing? It’s cheating, the equivalent of putting cork in your Louisville Slugger. Don’t do it.
• Verdict: Out of bounds.
Mocking a player’s physical appearance in an attempt to rattle him? “Nothing personal needs to be said,” Leonard said. Agreed. None of us looks like Chris Hemsworth or Idris Elba, so leave this part of your game at home.
• Verdict: Out of bounds.
Razzing a player while he’s walking to his ball? “I wouldn’t say it’s fair game,” Leonard said. “I don’t think that’s really in the spirit of it, though good luck trying to police that. For me personally, a fan doesn’t need to try to get in a player’s head. Who knows, you may be inspiring them at the same time and hurting your own side.”
Trying to define inappropriate commentary is tricky, but as the saying goes, I know it when I see it. Or, in this case, hear it. Clever and non-profane tee-to-green commentary should be allowed, just not when a player is standing over his ball.
• Verdict: In play.
Fans were eager for Jon Rahm’s autograph on Tuesday. Maybe not so much when the Ryder Cup begins. (Carl Recine / Getty Images)
In the end, no matter who tries to establish the terms of engagement, this Ryder Cup figures to be the biggest, loudest, most tumultuous golf tournament ever played. “The only thing you can do to control the chaos is to control alcohol sales,” Andrade said.
Even that wouldn’t work. Bethpage Black is not Winged Foot or Shinnecock. It is not a hideaway for the old-money set. It is a place where people who grew up in the Yankee Stadium bleachers and the Garden’s nosebleed seats sleep in their cars overnight to get a tee time.
“It’s a public golf course that the local people play that is affordable,” said Keegan Bradley, the American captain and a member of the St. John’s Athletics Hall of Fame. “We have an extreme obligation to defend their course.”
The fans have a right to be an engaged part of that cause. The Bethpage crowd should give the opposition the business for three days, respectfully, the same way the U.S. team gets it overseas.
And if the Europeans prevail, New Yorkers should congratulate them for showing the toughness to win a Ryder Cup in a hostile road arena — a toughness the Americans haven’t shown since 1993.
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Photos: Jared C. Tilton, Ross Kinnaird, Andreas Solaro, Mike Egerton / Getty)
