Dem
47
GOP
53
There is no question that Donald Trump is trying to lay his grimy paws on the WNBA and the World Cup. For this item, it's not quite as clear-cut, but we think it's a part of the overall theme we have running through (the second half of) today's posting. We'll present our argument, and readers can decide for themselves if we're off base (well, it's golf, so readers can decide if we've lost our grip).
We had a letter about this on Sunday, but this weekend was the Ryder Cup. That is a golf competition, held every other year, in which a team of American golfers plays against a team of European golfers. There has always been a certain amount of fan participation in Ryder Cup matches (not true of any pro golf event besides this one), and there's obviously a "rivalry" element. But this year's event, held in New York, was often just plain ugly. And pretty much all the ugliness came from the American fans.
The focal point of the bad behavior was Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy. He was subject to constant heckling, insults, remarks about his parentage, etc. Comedian Heather McMahan, who was acting as master of ceremonies, even led the crowd in a chant of "Fu** you, Rory." And it wasn't just him, it was also his wife Erica. As a civilian, she should be completely off-limits. But she got nearly as much taunting as her husband, and was also hit by a cup of beer thrown by an unknown fan. It eventually got bad enough that policemen with police dogs were deployed to protect the McIlroys.
We are not golf experts, of course. But Joel Beall, who writes for Golf Digest, certainly is, and he wrote that he's never seen anything like what happened to the McIlroys:
No player in modern Ryder Cup history endured the relentless, systematic dehumanisation McIlroy faced on Saturday. It was one of the most shameful spectacles this event has seen—a sustained campaign of cruelty that should embarrass every golf fan and American. For five hours, they questioned his manhood, recited the lowest moments of his career, and screamed personal rumours as truth. Every five minutes brought fresh torrents of F-bombs hurled like grenades. They bellowed and booed as he lined up shots, sometimes even mid-swing, violating the gallery code. Every Ryder Cup spawns its share of knuckle-dragging behaviour, but never has the abuse been this thunderous, this universal, this unrelenting.
There were dozens of other pieces along those lines yesterday.
Now, having established that lines were crossed this weekend that have never been crossed before, let us point out a few things:
On this basis, we feel comfortable laying the blame for this, in significant part, at Trump's feet. Again, readers may disagree, but that's our conclusion. Note that the U.S. was losing badly through the first three days of the tournament, nearly rallied, but ultimately came up short. That meant the Europeans were the first "road team" to win the tournament since 2012. Based on the chatter yesterday, a lot of Americans are mortified that the fans at the tournament represented the U.S. in this way, and so are glad the Europeans triumphed. And we just might be among the folks who feel that way. (Z)