According to the State Parks Department, 244,858 people attended last month’s 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
That includes the total number of fans from Tuesday, Sept. 23 through Sunday, Sept. 28, with three practice round days and three competition days. The PGA of America, which operates the biennial golf competition when played on American soil, declined to confirm the attendance number.
“It is the PGA of America’s policy not to release attendance numbers,” the organization wrote in a statement to Newsday on Friday.
Team Europe staved off Team USA’s ferocious comeback attempt in a 15-13 win.
The business group Long Island Association projected that the weeklong event would draw 250,000 fans. Fans from dozens of countries and 47 states were expected. More than 271,000 people from 100 different countries attended the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, according to a July 2024 article on the tournament’s website.
Tickets to the three competition days were priced at $750 apiece in last year’s lottery and topped $1,000 on secondary markets.
While the final practice day on Sept. 25 was affected by on-and-off rain, the weather during the three competition days hovered around 80 degrees and remained mostly sunny.
The Bethpage crowd was criticized for its raucous behavior, mostly for its vitriol directed at 36-year-old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, the No. 2 golfer in the world. Fans shouted obscenities about his personal life and family, and one fan even threw a drink at his wife Erica.
PGA of America president Don Rea Jr. eventually apologized for the fan behavior in an Oct. 2 letter sent to the organization’s members that was obtained by the Associated Press. Rea noted that “some fan behavior clearly crossed the line” and “it was disrespectful, inappropriate, and not representative of who we are as the PGA of America or as PGA of America golf professionals.”
At a news conference Wednesday ahead of this week’s DP World India Championship, McIlroy was asked about the fan behavior at the Ryder Cup. He said he has been following the narrative like everyone else, adding that it “unfortunately” takes away from an “incredible” European performance.
“The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason,” McIlroy said. “I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good the European team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.”
With Tory N. Parrish
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports’ general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins’ teams.
