By: Sports DeskUpdated: September 28, 2025 08:51 AM IST 2 min readEurope's Rory McIlroy celebrates after a putt on the 14th hole at Bethpage Black golf course during the Ryder Cup golf tournament, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo)Chants of “f**k you, Rory” became the soundtrack of Saturday as fans who had paid northwards of $750 (approximately Rs 66,000) or more for tickets for the Ryder Cup targetted Europe’s Rory McIlroy as he led his side against Team USA. But what was truly bizarre was that the chants were reportedly started by the female master of ceremonies hired by the PGA of America, which is organising the tournament.McIlroy, not a man to keep quiet in the face of obvious provocation, hit back: flipping a finger at a heckler, blowing kisses at the antagonistic crowd and later asking a fan to “Shut the f**k up!” when he shouted “freedom” as he was about to take a swing on the 16th during his foursomes match with Tommy Fleetwood.Speaking about the constant heckling from the home fans later on at Bethpage Black, McIlroy said that he was fine with the torrent of abuse as long as fans respected them enough to keep quiet while they were about to swing.“I don’t mind them having a go at us, that’s to be expected, that’s what an away Ryder Cup is. Whenever they are still doing it while you are over the ball and trying to hit your shot, that’s the tough thing. You know, look, in between shots, say whatever you want to me. That’s totally fine. But just give us the respect to let us hit shots. Give us the same chance that the Americans have,” said McIlroy after the round on Saturday.“People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m proud of us being able to win with what we had to go through.”With the help of McIlroy’s 3 1/2 points over his first four matches, Europe all but wrapped up the 2025 edition of an event that seems to grow more combustible each year.The Europeans closed with a 11 1/2 to 4 1/2 lead — needing only 2 1/2 out of 12 points in the Sunday singles to capture their first cup on opposing turf since 2014.(With inputs from AP)© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd