Darren Clarke’s missteps on a Saturday that saw momentum swing to Europe and then away again were largely blotted out by the furore over the conduct of the more boorish elements in the Hazeltine galleries.
Minnesota’s reputation as “the nice state” has been proved true by just about all the people I’ve met here. But it took a hammering at Hazeltine thanks to simply too many tickets being sold – 50,000 people watching four matches, no matter how spacious the property, is just silly –and the beer sales.
Discarded cans littered the course everywhere you went late in the day, and even American “lite” beer has an effect eventually.
But even then, the “fan” who unleashed a volley of profane and personal abuse at Rory McIlroy as he walked to a tee looked perfectly sober. McIlroy confronted the lout, with some proper fans supporting him, and security removed the offender from the premises.
On Sunday new signs appeared regularly across the vast video boards on the course indicating that marshals would not hesitate to eject miscreants who continually heckled European players, an almost constant backdrop to play on Saturday.
The messages also encouraged the crowd to self-police itself, for the respectful majority to point out unruly and abusive fans so they could be removed.
The majority of fans were not abusive or heckling – but the majority were at times unacceptably disrespectful.
The largest cheer I heard all day – without exception – came from the galleries on the 15th in the afternoon when McIlroy carved his ball – due to a huge lump of mud on it – into the lake.
The noise level for that easily surpassed that for Patrick Reed’s eagle and his joyous celebration. It simply was anathema to the traditions of golf.
Europe’s fans, when the Ryder Cup is held on this side of the Atlantic, are not exclusively angels. But I’ve never experienced anything there to compare with this week.
When Americans missed at Gleneagles, there was usually a collective sigh, the cheer only coming as fans acknowledged Europe had won the hole. There is little direct cheering of the opposition’s misfortunes; it seems almost compulsory here.
Oddly, the only person on the European side who largely dismissed the crowd issue was Clarke, who said that “99.99 per cent were wonderfully respectful”.
“You have the odd idiot, and that’s the way it is,” he said. Not even the PGA of America, given they felt obliged to post their warnings and make announcements on the first tee about respecting players of both teams – a bit superfluous given that was one of the few areas respect was observed – seemed to think it was such a non-issue.
Clarke could be credited for not using the crowd as a smokescreen for his errors on Saturday afternoon. He probably had to make the decision to play Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer in the fourballs before Garcia had made his thrilling comeback with Rafa Cabrera Bello, but breaking up the Spaniards will be identified as a crucial error by the second-guessers.
Similarly recalling Lee Westwood after his awful Friday performance will be targeted, although as Clarke pointed out his great friend played pretty well up until the 14th, where he missed the first of three crucial tiddlers.
But the captain fell over himself trying not to play two rookies together on the first two days, which was already difficult with six on the team. It also has served to drain the four frontline players who were producing for him.
Chris Wood played well with Rose in the Saturday morning foursomes and there was nothing to suggest the tall Englishman would have not played well with Willett, an old playing partner from amateur golf.
