Rory McIlroy puts fan vitriol at Ryder Cup behind him, says 'I love playing around New York' as U.S. Open nears
Rory McIlroy walks by spectators during the second practice day of the 2026 U.S. Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/William Perlman
When Rory McIlroy teed off on the 10th hole Monday to start his back-nine practice round at Shinnecock Hills there was already a crowd there to watch the highest-profile player in the sport. They looked on in the kind of hushed silence often associated with golf, but after he let it rip down the fairway, someone from the stands yelled something at him.
“Welcome back, Rory!”
Certainly better than the kinds of greetings he had hurled at him last time he played in a big event on Long Island.
That was at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park in October when he was helping lead the European team to a victory. Throughout that tournament McIlroy unwittingly played the role of villain to the ugly Americans — ugly Long Islanders, really — as he was heckled, booed, cursed at and berated. Much of the vitriol became personal as the crowd chanted obscenities at him. It was so nasty that even a public address announcer was participating in the vulgarity.
This week he is back in the area at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and on Tuesday he said he has been able to put last fall’s foul experience behind him and move on in his relationship with Long Island fans.
“I love playing around New York, I love playing in this area,” he said. “It’s got some of the best golf in the world. But this is a different . . . The Ryder Cup is ‘us versus them,’ very partisan, it’s just a different beast.”
Here at the Open, McIlroy isn’t the perceived enemy like he was eight months ago. Here he is not looking to beat anyone’s patriotism or make any kind of political statement. Here he is just one of the 156 golfers looking to tame one of the most challenging courses on the planet for a shot at a trophy healready won once in 2011 along with so many other accolades and hardware.
Rory just finished his practice round on the back 9. pic.twitter.com/YztwN7rjry
— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) June 15, 2026
Welcome back, Rory?
Rory never left. He never changed. It’s more like welcome back to civility and decorum and respect to the reactions toward him. Welcome back to not embarrassing ourselves with boorish, beer-fueled worst behaviors.
Bethpage gave Long Island fans a black eye, allowing them to live down to their reputation as a rowdy rabble. Shinnecock is their chance for penance.
So far it’s worked out that way. McIlroy was followed by a large group of fans on Monday — some of whom, based on their souvenir shirts from the Ryder Cup, were the same people who were at Bethpage — and again on Tuesday when he practiced on the front nine. This time the reaction to him was far more genial.
McIlroy for his part was a little icy after having been scarred as he was, but who can blame him? He did stop to sign a few autographs for fans along the rope line after his rounds.
Clearly McIlroy loves playing at Shinnecock. He called the course “the best championship test in the country” and raved about its design and challenges.
“I think it tests all aspects of the game: driving, iron play, you need to have your wits about you on the greens,” he said. “It's a lot of strategy, thoughtfulness.”
And he certainly appreciates the passions that we tend to bring to our sporting events.
“New York is New York and people are going to make their voices heard,” he said. “But that’s a good thing. That’s a good atmosphere to play in.”
But McIlroy also knows if those winds kick up or the fairways get too dried out late in the day, Shinnecock can become an unruly beast.
“It can turn very quickly,” he said.
Just like it did at Bethpage . . . with nothing to do with the course or the conditions.
“Was it a rough week for me at times? Absolutely,” McIlroy said of the infamous Bethpage experience. “But it is what it is. If that’s the price to pay to live the life that I am living, then I am OK with that.”
That life is pretty good. It includes the Ryder Cup victory of course. It includes a career grand slam. It includes the appreciation of most of the golfing universe including, so far, this corner of it between Gardiner’s Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
So is Long Island forgiven in McIlroy’s mind? Perhaps. Are its actions forgotten? Not a chance.
It’ll take more than some polite applause during early week rounds to erase what happened. Maybe it never will be fully expunged from the now complicated connection between McIlroy and us.
Bethpage’s shenanigans will always be there. Here’s hoping they are never welcomed back.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
