Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy received the brunt of the US crowd’s jeers at the Ryder Cup during Saturday’s fourballs session, with the Irishman caught on video in a heated verbal altercation with one fan
Shane Lowry had to be ‘held back’ at the Ryder Cup as he took issue with hecklers in the crowd. The Irishman was partnered by close friend Rory McIlroy for the afternoon’s fourballs session, taking on Justin Thomas and Cam Young of the United States.
As a result of representing the Luke Donald’s Europe, the two saw their fair share of jeers ahead of, after, and even during each shot they played. McIlroy was caught on Sky Sports cameras telling one member of the public to “shut the f*** up” during the earlier foursomes sessions as he grew tired of relentless taunting for the duration of his round.
And it appears as though Lowry took a similar stance during the pair’s fourballs match, caught on camera having a heated verbal altercation with a USA fan as McIlroy was preparing to tee off.
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The footage showed McIlroy taking a couple of warm-up swings as a chorus of boos rang out around him, while an unimpressed Lowry and his caddie stared into the fans’ area.
Lowry was then seen taking a step towards the crowd sporting a grimace upon his face, before his caddie put his hand across the golfer to stop him from advancing further.
The crowd then when silent as McIlroy teed off, before the drone continued as soon as the ball left his driver.
Lowry was then spotted clicking his fingers to get the attention of security, before pointing out troublemakers in the crowd and swiftly leaving the tee box to continue his round while showing a sarcastic thumbs up.
And it’s not the first time during the round that Lowry was spotted getting rowdy fans ejected from the tournament either.
Earlier in the day, the 38-year-old turned the air blue as he targeted a heckler, with multiple reports confirming that a patron had been escorted away from the greens and fairways of Bethpage Black.
A harrowing report from Sky Sports branded the conduct from the home support as “nasty”, as a number of Europe’s leading players were subjected to vile abuse near the side of the road.
Speaking about Lowry having a fan ejected earlier in the day, Jamie Weir – who was reporting live from Bethpage – said: “Shane Lowry has just had to get fan evicted as well.
“I was having a conversation with Nikolai Hojgaard whilst walking a couple of holes earlier. And he was saying, you know, from a player’s point of view, it is so difficult to gee yourself up off negative energy.
“You know, in Europe, we tend to cheer our players on and encourage them, and you can feed off that positive energy. But over here, when the fans are more focused on abusing the European players than actually encouraging the US players, that creates a negative atmosphere and negative energy.
“And as a player, that’s very, very difficult to feed off. I thought it was an interesting comment from Nikolai Hojgaard. So it can get some pretty nasty out there, but at the moment, the US fans don’t have too much to cheer about, do they?”
