It’s been 48 hours since Danny Willett’s older brother Pete caused a timely shitstorm with his less than flattering article about US golf fans.
‘’They need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red.’’
It’s not like it’s anything we haven’t heard before, but it is somewhat poetic, in a potentially xenophobic kind of way.
He’s never been one to shy away from expressing his opinions in the past, but it seemed the older Willett had gone one step too far on Thursday morning, when European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke and brother Danny both issued apologies regarding the now infamous blog post, ensuring that neither them nor the other players shared these thoughts. Good one lads.
It’s no shock that this article was taken-up badly by our competitors on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Willett did draw on some real stereotypes and didn’t hold back with the abuse. If Friday at Hazeltine proved anything however, it showed that a minority of American fans were doing their utmost to justify his comments.
It’s fair to some US fans acted obnoxiously from the get-go yesterday. Sarcastically cheering when the Europeans hit a bad shot. Roaring abuse on the tees before the European players teed off. Screaming in their backswings with an entire lack of respect for the other side. Oh, and then there were the constant screams of ‘Baba Booey’.
Gobshites Ted. A load of gobshites! pic.twitter.com/jhoDIKWdCL
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 30, 2016
Although someone did scream while McIlroy was hitting his match-saving putt on 18, forcing him to stand off it, a worse instance came at the 15th hole during Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson’s morning match. With Rose standing over a three-footer that would have brought the pair back to within one with two holes to play, a fan heckled him from within the crowd a couple of seconds before he hit his putt.
It’s hard to say whether or not the scream had any effect on Rose actually missing the putt. One thing is for sure though, it showed a complete lack of class. Some, not all American Ryder Cup fans, are going out of their way to make PJ Willett’s column seem slightly less ridiculous.
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