JUSTIN THOMAS AND Cameron Young conceded the final putt and so there was to be no delirious, fist-pumping crescendo moment for Shane Lowry or Rory McIlroy, though suddenly we realised that wasn’t the moment we were waiting for.
Shane and Rory initially danced and weaved about one another as they shook hands with their opponents, their caddies, and their opponent’s caddies; occasionally catching each other’s eyes before looking away, like a pair of shy teenagers.
Finally, with the diplomacy completed, the green cleared to leave Shane and Rory, standing still but eyes locked on one another. Shane opened his arms and folded Rory into them in a heaving, lung-crunching embrace. It radiated decades of personal history, and concluded a few long hours which will stand out within that history forever.
McIlroy and Lowry won Europe a Ryder Cup point in a brawny, brilliant duel against Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, and an atmosphere of truly stunning rancour. The New York crowd spat venom that crossed lines of human acceptability and sporting integrity.
This was less a match than it was an hours-long public trial: it felt a live rendering of what it means to be rich and successful online. Yes, we will grant your success, but that gives us the right to abuse you for it.
And so this victory was as great an exhibit of character and quality as this writer can ever remember witnessing in Irish sport.
The hostility with which both were subjected was absurd. The New York crowd has been hurling out grotesque personal insults all week, with many of the marshals around the course not just tolerating it but tacitly approving it, with a few seen grinning along with the latest moronic insult.
Walking the fairways was like listening to a series of Truth Social posts being read out loud in New York accents. The abuse was cutting and personal, involving not only their players but their wives and families, all of whom were inside the ropes. The players’ wives were briefly led away from the match for a couple of holes when the atmosphere was at its most unhinged.
McIlroy said he would be willing to put up with the abuse once was not allowed to unsettle his swing. The rowdy locals were not forced to abide by these rules, and so McIlroy had to step back from a morning swing when one American fan yelled Freedom! as he addressed his ball. McIlroy told him to “shut the f**k up.”
It’s fair to say all were given the freedom to act like a twat.
Things were much worse in the afternoon, with Wall Street’s best and brightest soaking in their 19-dollar pints.
This writer heard one hoarse American fan yell at a police officer in front of him, asking what swear words he was permitted to use toward McIlroy, before then running the full gamut from the c-word down. The police officer smiled awkwardly.
Lowry had to be held back after confronting one fan on an early tee, while McIlroy was disturbed by a shout of “F**k you Rory” as he took his putt on the fourth hole. He withdrew and remonstrated with a rules official, asking why none of these fans were being warned if not ejected. His father Gerry, widely recognised as the most affable man ever to walk a fairway, turned around to scold the transgressor.
Lowry, though, did the better part of the talking. He holed an eagle putt to win the hole and then turned at said transgressor, pointed, and yelled “F**k you.” Point. Made.
Lowry met the hostility with a magnificent kind of pig-headedness. On the very next hole a heckler called him a tellytubby, to which Lowry responded by stitching his approach to eight feet and tipping his cap to his abuser. Lowry would then make birdie to put Europe two-up, and another on seven to salvage a tie.
They lodged a complaint with the tournament, who belatedly tried to crack down on the madness. They scrambled police and security inside the ropes to issue warnings to the most egregious of the hecklers, and a message claiming zero tolerance toward unruly behaviour was flashed up on the leaderboards across the course.
The enhanced security needed for the match following the earlier flash points. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
McIlroy, though, continued to be assailed by insults about his marriage and his major heartbreaks, while Lowry had to listen to an endless chorus of anti-Irish bullshit. He was also derided as McIlroy’s junior partner. Lowry utterly rebutted that taunt, with McIlroy saying afterward that this was a victory that owed entirely to Lowry.
Justin Thomas led the on-course resistance, getting America back from two-down to level, all the while doing more to encourage the crowd to whisht at key moments than many of the marshals.
The match truly ignited on the par-three 14th, setting up a heavyweight slugfest all the way to the clubhouse.
McIlroy nervelessly knocked in a birdie putt to re-establish their lead on 14, windmilling his arms to the grandstands behind him.
The lengthy walk to the 15th tee was scored to more convulsions of spite from the galleries. No matter. Lowry met another major moment in making birdie on 15 after Thomas, protecting Europe’s lead. Cue another few first pumps.
By now they and the blue-splashed leaderboard had worn down the American fans, whose moronic dribblings were by now muffled by the chanting of the European fans. It was McIlroy’s turn to match the American’s birdie on 16, while on the par-three 17th, Thomas’ stunning tee shot was left so close to the hole that the Europeans conceded. Lowry made the birdie to tie, and pumped his fists to the raucous European fans in front of him. McIlroy, who held a steely gaze all day, allowed himself a grin as they walked to the final hole.
Thomas and Young birdied three of the final five holes but, incredibly, Lowry and McIlroy birdied all of those five holes. After Lowry and McIlroy secured their win, American fans spilled out of the grandstands to head home, as European fans serenaded their players, pleading for a wave. Amid the madness, a fight broke out in the stands, to which the armed State troopers sprinted from the 18th green, frantically scaling the stands.
The victorious moment. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Once Lowry and McIlroy had completed their on-course interviews, they met their wives on the 18th green, with McIlroy walking away with his arm around his wife, tears streaming down her face.
All successful sports people overcome what they ought to overcome.
The true greats conquer that to which they should not have been subjected in the first place.
