Tyrrell Hatton Says Crowds at Bethpage Black and Rome Weren’t “Close at All”

Most of the talk following the Ryder Cup hasn’t been about Team Europe winning on foreign soil, but the disappointing fan behavior that Luke Donald’s squad had to deal with on Saturday.

For example, Rory McIlroy was called homophobic slurs and had a beer thrown at him and his wife, Erica.

On Wednesday, prior to this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour, Tyrrell Hatton had a great response when asked about the New York crowd.

“To be honest, I think some guys on the team had a lot worse than others,” Hatton said. “For me personally, yeah, there was a lot of insults maybe around height or hair line or weight, which—some of which I pretty much said to myself anyway, so it wasn't like anything new.”

Team USA captain Keegan Bradley called the galleries “passionate” but admitted you’re always going to get people that “cross the line.”

“I mean, I thought the fans were passionate. I mean, their home team is getting beat bad.” Bradley said. “You know, they are passionate fans. I wasn't at Rome, but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well. But the fans of New York from what I have seen have been pretty good.

“You're always going to have a few people that cross the line, and that's unfortunate. I was happy to see our players trying to quiet down some people that were like that.”

Don Rea, the PGA of America president, chose the denial route, saying he hadn’t heard verbal abuse of McIlroy and said “it happens when we’re over in Rome.” (Social media was killing him on Tuesday for this interview, as they should’ve.)

Hatton, who went 3-0-1 in Rome, said the two crowds weren’t on the same level.

“Personally, I don't think they were close at all,” Hatton said. “I certainly, with what I heard last week, I don't think Rome comes anywhere near that…I don't know what else to add to that. I think they are quite far apart to be honest.”

I'm sure the Americans get some stuff thrown their way across the pond, but I can't imagine it's as bad as what we heard on Long Island. It was some nasty shit.