10 Ryder Cup rows remembered as Bethpage powder keg awaits a spark
Patrick Cantlay of Team United States reacts on the 17th green during the Saturday afternoon fourball matches of the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club on September 30, 2023 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
The Ryder Cup arouses passions like no other event in golf.
It's a fact of life, and this year's 45th edition at Bethpage Black in New York (the city that never sleeps or fails to tell you precisely what it thinks) has all the ingredients required to produce serious fireworks.
With US pride sorely wounded after they failed to back up their 19-9 COVID win in Wisconsin and lost by five points to Luke Donald's slick machine in Rome, it's payback time.
US skipper Keegan Bradley (39)—the youngest US captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963—has been called up to rally the troops.
Then there's the New York crowd, who know that the real capital of the USA is certainly not Washington, D.C., and aren't afraid to tell you.
Add to all a Friday appearance by US President Donald "Make America Great Again" Trump and teams featuring players who love to get a crowd going — Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton and Robert MacIntyre for Europe and virtually every member of the US squad — and it would be a miracle if there wasn't some kind of explosion.
It's like giving a pyromaniac a can of petrol and a box of matches and praying he sure stays away from that kindling.
For all the hand-wringing about fans "crossing the line" and players potentially wading into the crowd, it's the niggle that's made the Ryder Cup one of the most-watched events in sport.
Sportsmanship can sometimes get lost in all the noise, but there has always been trouble.
There were complaints about the US team's steel shafts in 1929, their deep grooves in 1947 and deliberate slow play by Tommy Bolt in 1957.
In 1969, it almost came to blows at Birkdale when Americans Dave Hill and Ben Still were accused of gamesmanship in what was described as the worst-tempered match in Ryder Cup history against Bernard Gallacher and Brian Huggett.
Increased TV and media coverage has only accentuated the incidents in recent years.
1989 Ball-gate I
Paul Azinger beat Seve Ballesteros in the tied Ryder Cup at the Belfry in 1989. He'd been told by teammate Curtis Strange to be wary of Ballesteros' gamesmanship in their singles clash and riled the Spaniard by refusing to let him replace a scuffed ball on the second green. "Is this the way you want to play today?" asked Ballesteros, who questioned an Azinger drop on the 18th but still lost 1 up. Their relationship only deteriorated.
1991 The War by the Shore and Ball-gate II
With Azinger and Corey Pavin wearing US military caps in the wake of Operation Desert Storm, this was one of the most controversial of all Ryder Cups. After a 'Wake the Enemy' campaign by a local DJ led to Europeans receiving calls in the middle of the night, it went downhill from there. Ballesteros and Azinger had a stand-up row when the Spaniard accused the American of breaching the one-ball rule. It ended with Bernhard Langer missing a putt on the last that gave the US a narrow win.
1999 The "disgusting" Battle of Brookline
Europe led 10-6 into the final day, but the Americans rallied to win back the trophy in one of the most controversial Ryder Cup finishes of all. US fans heckled and abused European players — "Hey, Mrs Doubtfire!" — and emotions boiled over when Justin Leonard holed a 45-footer on the 17th that prompted US players and their wives to invade the green when José María Olazábal still had a putt to extend the match. Sam Torrance labelled the American behaviour "disgusting" and broadcaster Alistair Cooke described it as "a date that will live in infamy".
2004 - Panic in Detroit, the Tiger and Phil disaster
Not so much a controversy as a disaster for the USA. Phil Mickelson changed equipment nine days before the matches at Oakland Hill in Detroit, then practised with a new ball on a different course after hapless US skipper Hal Sutton paired him with Tiger Woods in fourballs and foursomes on the first day. The dream team turned out to be a nightmare for Sutton as they lost both matches in what was a record 18.5-9.5 defeat.
2008 Faldo's failure at Valhalla
The non-selection of Darren Clarke was only the start. Nick Faldo did it his way in Louisville, and from his opening speech, when he described Padraig Harrington as a man who'd hit more balls "than potatoes have been dug up in Ireland," and introduced Soren Hansen as Soren Stenson, it was one bad move after another. Paul Azinger's squad, grouped in pods, won 16.5- 11.5 to claim the trophy for the first time in nine years.
2014 Phil throws Watson under the bus
Tom Watson's captaincy was effectively decried as a dictatorial disaster by Mickelson, who had been left out all day on Saturday at Gleneagles. In a scathing post-Ryder Cup press conference — and with Watson sitting just a few seats away — the left-hander launched a one-man mutiny. Asked if he thought that Phil was "being disloyal," Watson took the high road. "Not at all. He has a difference of opinion." A year later, Watson admitted he felt it was "sour grapes" from Mickelson.
2016 - Willett-gate and "pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants"
Danny Willett was the Masters champion and expected to play a significant role for Darren Clarke at Hazeltine, but then his brother took to the blogosphere.
"They need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hot dog so they can scream 'Baba booey' until their jelly faces turn red," Pete Willett wrote.
"They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection-inducing 'mashed potato', hoping to impress their cousin…"
Fearing a US backlash, rookie Willett didn't play in the first foursomes session, which ended in a 4-0 drubbing. In the end, he played three and lost three, but Europe, with six rookies, lost 17-11 to the Americans, led by Captain America, Patrick Reed.
2018 - Snubbing Captain America
Europe won back the Cup in Paris, where the Fleetwood-Molinari (Moliwood) partnership flourished and the US post-mortem was all about the demise of the partnership between Reed and Jordan Spieth.
After losing just once in seven matches, they weren't paired by captain Jim Furyk, with the US going on to suffer a heavy defeat.
Reed's wife, Justine, claimed on Twitter that Reed had never asked not to play with Spieth. As it turned out, it was the other way around, Reed told the New York Times, because of "Jordan not wanting to play with me".
Furyk dropped him for both afternoon sessions on Friday and Saturday, despite his record.
"I don't think it's smart to sit me twice," said Reed, who has yet to play in another Ryder Cup.
2021 - "Nobody turns into a genius with drinking"
Hampered by the COVID delay and the loss of form by some players, Pádraig Harrington's transitional team was hammered 19-9 by a rampant USA at Whistling Straits, where fan abuse was rife and there was no European support due to the pandemic.
Shane. Lowry said he "got on well with the crowd", but it was different for his wife, Wendy.
"I didn't think it was that bad until I asked my wife what it was like for her, and they got dog's abuse going around as well," Lowry said.
"Some people are idiots, especially when they drink. Nobody turns into a genius with drinking and that's what they were doing last week, especially if you were out in the afternoon matches."
2023 - Hat-gate and Rocky McIlroy
Patrick Cantlay not wearing a hat, allegedly as a protest at US players not being paid (until this year), was a source of fun for Europe's fans until the red mist descended on Rory McIlroy late on Saturday. Cantlay holed key putts on the last three greens as he partnered Wyndham Clark to a 1-up win over McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick but it all ended in a heated car park confrontation between the Holywood star and Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava, and later, Jim "Bones" Mackay.
Shane Lowry was forced to hold McIlroy back and bundle him into a car as he grew more and more incensed over LaCava's behaviour on the 18th green.
After seeing Cantlay taunted all day, the veteran caddie waved his cap sarcastically the crowd after his man made his 18th hole putt. He lingered in McIlroy's line longer than advisable, even when asked to move, and the backlash was fierce.
"My relationship with Cantlay is average at best," McIlroy told Paul Kimmage afterwards. "We don't have a ton in common and see the world quite differently. But when I saw he was getting stick on the 17th and 18th greens, I tried to quiet the crowd for him. And I don't think [Fitzpatrick] and I were afforded the same opportunity to try and hole those putts to halve the match.
"I shook Joe's hand and Patrick's hand. Those three putts he made on 16, 17 and 18 were fantastic, and under that pressure, to give your team a glimmer of hope going into Sunday was big balls. So all respect to him.
"There was a bit of argy-bargy at the back of the 18th green with Fred Couples and Thomas Bjørn – and that's fine – but as I'm walking back to the locker room, I can feel this red mist coming over me. 'No! That wasn't right.'"
LaCava's former employer, Tiger Woods, tried to make peace in a text, but McIlroy, who later regretted attacking Mackay, isn't forgiving.
"LaCava used to be a nice guy when he was caddying for Tiger, and now he's caddying for that dick [Cantlay]. He's turned into an arse."
