At chaotic Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley calls fans passionate, but some ‘cross line'

Keegan Bradley says Bethpage Black fans on Saturday were "passionate." From what he's seen, he says, they've been pretty good.  

But on a Ryder Cup afternoon where fans shouted obscenities at players, players engaged with fans and extra security was needed, the U.S. captain also said that there are always going to be "a few people that cross the line."

"And that's unfortunate," he said. 

On the second of three days of Ryder Cup play, the scene turned chaotic at times as Europe took a likely insurmountable 11.5-4.5 lead over the Americans on their home turf. Many of the hostilities were directed at Europeans Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, as those at the Long Island course heard vulgar shouts at the duo, responses from them and a beefed-up security presence. 

Afterward, a reporter asked Bradley if the fan behavior crossed a line. 

"I didn’t see - I mean, I thought the fans were passionate," he said. "I mean, their home team is getting beat bad. You know, they are passionate fans. I wasn’t at Rome [at the previous Ryder Cup], 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.

"Part of it is our fault. We are not playing up to the standards that they want to see, and they are angry, and they should be."

A short while later in the press conference, a reporter and Bradley then had an exchange where Bradley believed he was misquoted. Below is the complete back and forth, and the reporter's words are in italics. 

You said the way your players have played is maybe partly to blame for some of the fans crossing the line …

"I did not say that," Bradley said. "That’s not what I said. I said the fans are probably upset that their home team is losing. I did not say that."

But do you think maybe you bear some responsibility in terms of some of the words that you and your players used beforehand in terms of stoking up the fans to bring a hostile environment?

"What words were those?" Bradley asked. 

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To bring chaos and just talking up the atmosphere here, Collin …

"Yeah, Ryder Cups are wild," Bradley said. "I don’t appreciate those words that you just said. I know what you’re trying to do.

"The Ryder Cup is full of passionate fans. They’re full of passionate players. And that wasn’t right."

Also in the press conference, Bradley was asked about a confrontation among Americans Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, Europeans Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, their caddies and European vice captain Eduardo Molinari after Rose asked DeChambeau's caddie to move during a putt. Bradley said he thought things had been cleared up. 

"I’ve spoken to everybody involved," he said. "I mean, I think it was a little bit disrespectful, but Justin Rose told me after on the green that they had talked it out. I talked to Bryson.

"In sports, golf, it’s blown into this huge thing. It happens in sports all the time. They seemed fine after the round. You know, it’s super passionate out there, especially for - well, for both sides. But from what I understand, everything was fine after the round. These sort of things happen when you’re playing for your country."

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