Rory McIlroy received a personal apology from the CEO of the PGA of America, Derek Sprague, after being brutally heckled during the Ryder Cup tournament this fall.
“I got a lovely email from Derek Sprague apologizing,” McIlroy, 36, told BBC Sport on Wednesday, November 5, while competing at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “Erica [Stoll, my wife] worked with Derek at the PGA of America back in the day, so we know Derek and his wife pretty well.”
The golf pro added, “He couldn’t have been more gracious or apologetic and he wrote us a lovely letter, which we really appreciated.”
When McIlroy competed in the Ryder Cup in September, he was heckled by several fans. Another, meanwhile, threw a beer can in Stoll’s direction.
“I take it as a compliment that they targeted me,” McIlroy explained to the BBC. “But then at the same time, it was a tough week. That made us better as a team. It galvanized us and it really put our arms around each other.”
Sprague revealed last month that he formally apologized to McIlroy and his wife. (McIlroy and Stoll, 38, have been married since 2017, recently reconciling after a brief separation.)
“I sent a long email to share with Rory and Erica and just told him that we will do better in the future,” Sprague told The Athletic in October. “I’m the CEO now. I don’t condone this type of behavior. This is not good for the game of golf. It’s not good for the Ryder Cup. It’s not good for any of the professional athletes, and we will do better.”
According to Sprague, he also spoke with McIlroy’s manager, Sean O’Flaherty, about the incident.
Erica Stoll and Rory McIlroy at the 2025 Ryder Cup. Mateo Villalba/Getty Images
“I was just really, really, really disappointed,” Sprague told the outlet. “I’m disappointed in fan behavior, disappointed in the first tee and the emcee. That’s not who we are.”
He continued, “It’s hard to define what crosses the line, right? You almost have to be there, and when we were getting reports of those incidents, the security — state police or private or whoever — we were dealing with those as they came up. We threw out a number of people, or we moved people to other places away from the matches if they were heckling certain players of that match.”
Moving forward, Sprague pledged that the PGA will do better at future tournaments.
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“We will make sure that we focus on what the Ryder Cup is all about,” Sprague added at the time. “It’s about decorum and sportsmanship and integrity. The game has the highest values in all of sports, and we need to have a guiding light to focus on from both sides of every match.”
As for McIlroy, he also was not happy with the fan antics during his golf game.
“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,” he said during a September 28 press conference. “Golf … teaches you how to respect people. Sometimes this week, we didn’t see that. This should not be what is acceptable at the Ryder Cup. What happened here this week is not acceptable.”
