Loud and proud: Boisterous American fans toast Ryder Cup rout

A US fan shows her support at Whistling Straits. Picture: Anthony Behar/PA

As a rookie experiencing his first Ryder Cup at a road venue, Shane Lowry’s assessment of the American fans at Whistling Straits was terse.

What does Lowry think of how the US galleries are treating them?

“Not much,” Lowry said.

As he roared his way to Europe’s only team match win from a partnership outside Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, Lowry was an occasional target of some scattered obnoxious and over-served yahoos lobbing childish insults about his size. “Hey Shane, is that an XL? When’s the baby due?”

Tyrrell Hatton, no stranger to salty language himself, had more to say about it than Lowry, having suffered a few heckles at the top of his backswing.

“The majority of the fans have been great, to be fair,” said Hatton. “I think they have been calling out some of the guys that have been chanting some, or using some interesting words should we say, and it’s just unfortunate that a few of them do silly things like opening cans at the top of your backswing.

“It’s a little bit unnecessary. Obviously, you want to play a fair game, and rightly so, they are supporting their guys. And it’s the same for us in Europe. We get the support when we are at home. So we expected a hostile atmosphere, and that’s what we’ve got so far this week.

“Like I said, the majority of the fans have been fine.”

This has been a Ryder Cup unlike any other, with such a lopsided preponderance of the crowd leaning to only one side after pandemic restrictions limiting travel from Europeans. What few Euro fans in attendance are dwarfed in numbers by fans wearing red, white and blue.

But, by and large, it has been a friendlier engagement than some past encounters. It’s nothing compared to the hostile atmosphere of Brookline in 1999 or Hazeltine in 2016, when the American spectators were particularly riled up after some insulting published comments by Danny Willett’s brother inflamed affairs more than usual. The PGA of America that year had encouraged fans to get behind the US team, but had to back-track with signs asking for respect after days of disgraceful behaviour.

That has not been the case this week. The most revealing element of this week is the general silence that follows even the best European shots. Those moments of silence, however, also breed an environment for the more boorish spectators to lob insults easily heard about Tommy Fleetwood’s hair, or Brexit, or whatever they deem to be clever.

The US vice-captains have sometimes policed the behaviour. When someone shouted at Ian Poulter about enjoying his “last Ryder Cup”, Davis Love III raised his hand and barked for silence. His command was heeded.

Captain Pádraig Harrington had nothing bad to say about the Wisconsin crowds that he worked hard to pander to in order to maintain a general peace.

“I would definitely say the Wisconsin people are really nice,” said Harrington. “I’ve got to say we have been well received here. It was interesting — I assumed there would be more Europeans here — not travelling from Europe, but from the US.

“It took a while to get used to the different sounds.

“Silence is golden when it comes to the Europeans this week. Silence means we’ve hit a good shot. So that was different. I would say in general, the Wisconsinites have been really, really nice, and certainly ahead of my expectations, no doubt about that.”

While a Ryder Cup crowd will never be mistaken for reverence similar to patrons at the Masters or Open Championship, in four years, when the matches head to Long Island, New York, at Bethpage Black, the European team may yet long for the glory days of relative peace and respect they’ve received in Wisconsin’s dairyland.