Claim:
A video authentically showed golfer Rory McIlroy saying he would “never participate in tournaments held in the United States again” after receiving abuse from fans at the 2025 Ryder Cup, held in in Farmingdale, New York.
Rating:
In late September and early October 2025, a video circulated online that appeared to show professional golfer Rory McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, saying he would “never participate in tournaments held in the United States again” after receiving abuse from fans at the 2025 Ryder Cup.
The tournament took place in late September in Farmingdale, New York, where McIlroy and Team Europe won (archived) 15-13 over the U.S.
One TikTok video (archived) that claimed to show McIlroy making the statement got hundreds of thousands of views in just a few days. The uploader captioned the video, “Rory Mcllroy may never compete in a tournament held in the United States again. He cannot accept the fact that someone in the crowd threw a drink bottle at his wife’s head.”
The minute-long video allegedly showing McIlroy began with the golfer reportedly saying:
I will never participate in tournaments held in the United States again. I can accept people insulting me, but I cannot accept them hitting my wife on the head with a drink bottle. I can also accept them saying I don’t deserve to win but I cannot accept them insulting our European team. This Ryder Cup was the darkest and most disgraceful match I have ever experienced.
The video and claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking if McIlroy really swore off participating in tournaments in the U.S.
However, we found no credible reports that McIlroy actually spoke the specific words attributed to him in the popular TikTok video (archived, archived, archived, archived). McIlroy did speak about what he called “unacceptable and abusive behavior” from fans during the 2025 Ryder Cup final during a news conference on Sept. 28, 2025, but he did not say at that time that he would no longer participate in tournaments on U.S. soil as a result.
The TikTok video creator marked the footage as generated by artificial intelligence. This was clear at the start of the video, which used footage of McIlroy speaking in 2020 but changed the golfer’s mouth movement and appearance. Therefore, we rate this claim as a fake.
We reached out to representatives for McIlroy to ask whether the golfer had publicly announced he would no longer play tournaments in the U.S. and await a reply.
Snopes reached out to the TikTok user who uploaded the popular video of McIlory to confirm which parts of it were AI-generated. Though the start of the video appeared to be modeled on real but outdated footage of McIlroy speaking, it was clear from that footage that McIlroy’s real-life delivery, accent and mannerisms were different from those in the AI-generated clip. The TikTok clip also appeared to have removed McIlroy’s freckles and other skin details that were visible in the authentic 2020 clip.
Unnatural movement, smoothed out textures and stilted delivery and mannerisms are tell-tale signs of deepfakes — video clips that appear to show a person saying something they never said in real life.
When asked during the Sept. 28 news conference whether he thought the abuse was part of the sport, McIlroy said, “I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than, than what was, you know, than what was seen out there this week.”
One clip in the AI-generated TikTok video authentically showed McIlroy’s wife, Erica Stoll, being hit on the head by a drink as the couple walked past a crowd of fans. McIlroy said during the Sept. 28 news conference that Stoll was OK following the incident. It was unclear at the time of this writing whether the flying drink could have been an accident.
McIlroy said during the news conference that he had “chirped back” a few times because fan behavior “got to me.” Footage from the tournament showed McIlroy telling hecklers to “shut the f*** up.”
According to a schedule on his website, McIlroy’s next tournament would be the DP World India Championship in New Delhi. At the time of this writing, McIlroy did not have another tournament scheduled in the U.S.
Sources
“I Will Never Participate in Tournaments Held in the United States Again.” – Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=9eff12e450c8c5f1&q=%E2%80%9CI+will+never+participate+in+tournaments+held+in+the+United+States+again.%E2%80%9D&tbm=nws&source=lnms&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJjYuUnSkczEhozYdaq1wZrEWeBTRRMkGx8PE2F9zI9kP0W9slwfD0e_E2SCYpxxEsC_BrWJwexl-O9EWcJokLfolidtcXxvW99MwkbO-wb4MAKMfrgJXRv1udcTEvX7muF0uB0QmZ1f0PFcGGpV6k0vi_XqFw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjb_qHT4YWQAxW8SEEAHbA_KSkQ0pQJegQIERAB&biw=1470&bih=708&dpr=2. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
“I Will Never Participate in Tournaments Held in the United States Again.” – Search News. https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=%e2%80%9cI+will+never+participate+in+tournaments+held+in+the+United+States+again.%e2%80%9d%0d%0a&FORM=HDRSC7. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
“I Will Never Participate in Tournaments Held in the United States Again.” – Yahoo Search Results. https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=%E2%80%9CI+will+never+participate+in+tournaments+held+in+the+United+States+again.%E2%80%9D&fr=yfp-t&fr2=p%3Afp%2Cm%3Asb&fp=1. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
“I Will Never Participate in Tournaments Held in the United States Again.” at DuckDuckGo. https://duckduckgo.com/?origin=funnel_home_website&t=h_&q=%E2%80%9CI+will+never+participate+in+tournaments+held+in+the+United+States+again.%E2%80%9D&ia=news&iar=news. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
@MovistarGolf. “🚨 😳 La 𝙄𝙈𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙉: Rory McIlroy Sufrió El Lanzamiento de Un Vaso.” X, 28 Sep. 2025, https://x.com/MovistarGolf/status/1972325618768367903.
New York Post Sports. “Rory Tells Hecklers at Ryder Cup to ‘Shut the F**k up,’ Then Nails Approach Shot.” YouTube, 27 Sep. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEV_pK2R0k.
Ryder Cup. “LIVE | Press Conference | U.S. Team & Team Europe | Day 3 | 2025 Ryder Cup.” YouTube, 28 Sep. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/live/t3tyCdXe-pg?t=2969s.
“Schedule.” Rory McIlroy, http://www.rorymcilroy.com. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
TenGolf. “Rory McIlroy Sunday Flash Interview 2020 US Open – Round 4.” YouTube, 20 Sep. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR-5pfzN6UY.
