Heather McMahan is providing more details about the “international incident” she found herself in during the Ryder Cup after she was heard chanting “F–k you, Rory” with the crowd ahead of the second day of the tournament held on Long Island over the weekend.
McMahan spoke in depth about the incident, which led to her resignation as emcee at the first tee, and in the 41-minute episode of her “Absolutely Not with Heather McMahan” podcast, the actress and comedian took responsibility for her part in the chant, while detailing the “negative” and “toxic” atmosphere at Bethpage Black while she was trying to hype up the crowd.
“I would just like to say that I immediately did not like the energy and the vibe from when that started to happen. I will take full responsibility and sincerely apologize to Rory [McIlroy] and Team Europe for saying that,” McMahan said. “It was so foolish of me. I did not start the chant, I would just like that narrative to get out there. I did not start it, but any way I participated in that, even just saying it once, was so foolish and so silly of me.”
A clip of that moment went viral and drew scorn from European golf fans and eventually became one of the memorable moments on a day when crowds heaped jeers and over-the-line comments at Team Europe players, particularly at McIlroy.
McMahan said she felt the “energy” shift after that chant.
“It went from us trying to be fun and funny and get it going to immediately was just negative and felt really toxic,” she explained. “As soon as I said that I was like I don’t want any part of this. This was just getting weird and I don’t know how to control this crowd of 4,000 dudes at 5 o’clock in the morning, shouting crazy s–t.
“As soon as that happened, I immediately turned to my producer and said ‘let’s just get the DJ to play music. I don’t know what to do with this audience right now, so I’m not going to participate.”
The crowds at Bethpage Black were widely criticized for their behavior, which led PGA of America to deploy additional security around McIlroy’s group after several incidents during Saturday’s afternoon session and for Sunday’s singles matches.
Social media has already been criticizing another clip posted on Saturday morning of a failed attempt to teach the grandstands chants with the players’ names.
An attempt at combining a chant of Scottie Scheffler’s name with the tune of “We Will Rock You” was described by Golf Digest as the “most cringeworthy moment in Ryder Cup history.”
“I’m hired as a comedian, but unfortunately the gig turned into a little bit more of a court jester, pep rally cheerleader and we were trying to figure it out as we went,” she said of the gig.”
“The crowd started to get really fratty, really intense, really quick,” she added. “I don’t want to speak for everybody in the crowd. There were so many wonderful people there that were being lovely. But unfortunately, the energy and the way the crowd moved it was not the vibe.”
Europe ended up winning the Ryder Cup despite a comeback attempt by the Americans, and McIlroy spoke out about the comments he faced during the week after the tournament ended, calling it something that “we should ever accept” in golf.”