ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND | And on it goes … on Tuesday, Derek Sprague, the CEO of the PGA of America, stated his intention to apologise for the behavior of American fans toward the European team during the Ryder Cup.
In a Golf Channel interview, Sprague said he planned to apologize to Rory McIlroy and his wife, Erica, as well as the entire European squad for the spectator abuse they were subjected to at Bethpage Black. Sprague’s contrite comments were in stark contrast to remarks uttered Sunday by PGA president Don Rea, who among other things suggested that the American crowd’s behaviour at Bethpage Black was no worse than the European fans’ had been at Marco Simone in Rome in 2023.
Now we all know that there was endless cheering in St Peter’s Square when white smoke went up for the new pope but, on the eve of this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, there was nothing more likely to go up in smoke than Tyrrell Hatton, or rather his new level of calm. Throughout last week at the Ryder Cup, this often excitable champion had not come close to winding up the American crowd: “I didn’t really let anything affect me, even if I hit bad shots. I didn’t overreact … and that continued to apply even when there was a lot of insults coming my way, maybe about my height, my hairline or my weight. … They were things which I pretty much said to myself anyway.”
Yet when, toward the end of his Wednesday press conference at St Andrews, a questioner alluded to an unspecified remark by U.S. captain Keegan Bradley about the crowd and asked Hatton if he would compare the two atmospheres at Rome and Bethpage, Hatton began with a disbelieving stare before coming out with precisely what he thought. “Personally, I don’t think they were close at all. … I think they are quite far apart to be honest.”
With Hatton having opened the floodgates, Matt Fitzpatrick, usually a shy soul, did not hesitate to say his piece.
Whatever Rea said about it being the same in Rome, he clearly wasn’t there, Fitzpatrick said. “I guess he wasn’t there or he must have been listening to something else because it was just never the case that it was anything like that,” the Englishman added. “It’s pretty offensive to European fans the fact that he said that, really.”
To Fitzpatrick, whose parents decided they would do better to stay away from this year’s match, U.S. and European fans are altogether different, with some of the Americans preferring “random obscenities” as opposed to the Europeans’ preference for something more creative.
When asked about Sprague’s intentions to apologize, Fitzpatrick said he thought it understandable that an apology would be forthcoming.
Fitzpatrick had not finished. Having mentioned sensing “a little bit of bitterness” when Europe received the trophy, he was happy to elaborate, saying that when Rea spoke at the presentation, “me and Rosey [Justin Rose] looked at each other as if to say, that wasn’t a very heartfelt congratulations. … And he said we only retained [the Ryder Cup] but actually we won it.”
“Yeah, personal comments can go too far, and you obviously hope that that doesn’t happen again, or it shouldn’t happen.” – Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Fleetwood, in fairness, was keen to stress that no-one should blame the Americans as a whole. “I have so many friends that are Americans who were at the Ryder Cup, and there were people close to me, saying, ‘I’ve got to support my own team,’ things like that. That’s just what it is. You’re going to get a tough environment when you get to an ‘away’ Ryder Cup. … Yeah, personal comments can go too far, and you obviously hope that that doesn’t happen again, or it shouldn’t happen.” He confessed to being shattered by the end of the week, certainly too tired to last as long as his European counterparts at their post-match party.
Dr. Andrew Murray, the DP World Tour medical man who spoke at the PROMISE conference on protecting on mental health in sport a couple of weekends ago, said that though criticism was something the players were used to, “it could only have been cognitively draining to receive some of the comments and behaviours delivered by what was a minority of spectators at Bethpage. … Even more so, it doesn’t help to see your friends, family and those dearest to you being unfairly treated. That can affect anyone; everyone is human after all.” Needless to say, the doctor was full of admiration for how Luke Donald, Europe’s captain, had coped.
For all three of Fleetwood, Hatton and Fitzpatrick, there is no better way to recover from the stresses of Bethpage Black than playing in the Dunhill. Fleetwood, who has never missed the tournament since 2011 when he was still on the Challenge Tour, continues to partner with friends he made all those years ago at St Andrews in the pro-am. Hatton, last year’s winner, is doing as he did last year in playing with his dad, Jeff, while Fitzpatrick has changed his mother, Sue, with whom he won a couple of years ago, for his father, Russell. (Sue is now playing with Matt’s younger brother, Alex.) All of them are rejoicing in being back to having a playing companion at their sides as they did on Friday and Saturday on Long Island.
And if, this week, things quieten down amid the peace, perfect peace, of St Andrews, a likely conversation will be about Donald and whether or not he comes down on the side of taking on the captaincy for a third time.
Like Dr. Murray, no-one a bad word to say about this former world No. 1 whose grandmother, along with her twin, had been brought up in an Edinburgh convent when their mother died in childhood. There, they were reared by their Auntie May, a nun.
“Starting life in a convent gave my mother an amazing nature,” Colin Donald, Luke’s late father, once said. “I don’t think she and I ever had a cross word. I inherited her great feel for children and, yes, I can see something of her in Luke.”
Luke, the youngest of four, has always known where his temperament serves him best in his chosen career. “I don’t get too excited when things are going well and I don’t get too down when they’re not.”
Nothing has changed.