Rory McIlroy left 'sickened' by 'horrific' comments about daughter made by American fans during Ryder Cup win

The four-time major champion, who served as a leading figure in Luke Donald's victorious squad, described how spectators crossed a line by targeting his five-year-old daughter Poppy with their insults.

McIlroy faced the worst of the hostile treatment from American crowds across all three days of competition.

The abuse extended beyond verbal attacks, with McIlroy's wife, Erica, being struck by a beer cup thrown by a spectator during the tournament.

The situation became so volatile that authorities were forced to bring in police officers accompanied by dogs during Saturday afternoon's matches in an attempt to restore order.

Speaking on Sky Sports' Stick to Football podcast, he said: "I don’t care if people say whatever they’re saying to me, even the first-tee announcer saying: F**k you, Rory. That much is nothing compared to the other stuff we heard.

"Erica, my wife, would say, she’s a grown woman, she’s strong, she can handle that, but when it starts to get into, I heard stuff about my daughter that I couldn’t even repeat here, it was horrific."

He added: "It’s also like society at the minute as well, it’s the mob mentality. They see other people doing something and think it’s okay. 2016 we played the Ryder Cup in Minnesota, I thought that was bad, I compare this year [2025] to 2016, and 2016 was nothing compared to some of the stuff we heard.

"There are 50,000 people there, all it takes is 500 of those to be bad eggs, and it skews the atmosphere.”

The European players collectively endured significant hostility from sections of the home crowd throughout their successful defence of the trophy.

Despite the challenging atmosphere created by unruly fans, Donald's team managed to overcome the hostile environment and secure victory against the American side on their home soil.

McIlroy added: “Keegan [Bradley] and I have talked about this. You have to play into the home-field advantage, absolutely.

"But during the competition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the stuff that we heard on the course, there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the teammates to be like: Let’s just calm down here. Let’s try to play this match in the right spirit.

"Some of them did that, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week in being the captain. I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night and he didn’t.”

Despite the verbal abuse, McIlroy still emerged victorious.

He said: “In the Ryder Cup for the first two days, there’s 50,000 people on four holes. It’s so tight and so packed in and so condensed.

"Then on Sunday there’s 12 matches, so the crowd is a little more dispersed around the golf course. It doesn’t really get into that mob mentality as much.

"It’s a great event for golf to have because it’s the only time you have that real partisan feel. What we feel or what I feel as a football fan or what you felt when you were playing.

"That’s a rivalry and people really get into that. It’s the reason it’s probably the biggest tournament in golf."