The abuse hurled at Europe’s golfers in the Ryder Cup elicited gasps and dismay on both sides of the Atlantic. The crowd at the Bethpage Black course in New York graduated from boos and heckles to homophobic slurs and insults aimed at players’ wives. The first-tee master of ceremonies set the tone by leading a chant of “fuck you, Rory!”, putting Rory McIlroy firmly in the crosshairs – along with his wife, who was hit with a beer cup.
After initially playing it down, American golf officials apologised and said some fan behaviour had “crossed the line”, but the affair has left a nagging sense of unease. What if the line has in fact moved? What if accepted codes of crowd behaviour have changed?
It is a question social scientists and event managers have been asking in recent years and spans several countries and types of spectacle, obviating any sense that the issue is confined to US golf fans.
View image in fullscreen New York state park police watch the crowd at the Ryder Cup tournament on the Bethpage Black golf course. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/AP
Taunting banners brandished at football terraces, gum spat at tennis players, objects hurled on to concert stages, heckles during concerts – an apparently never-ending litany of boorish, loutish behaviour fills news feeds.
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