Rory McIlroy sat in front of me, draped in a European flag and swigging from a can of Stella Artois.
His voice had gone slightly hoarse from the early celebrations after Europe secured a dramatic Ryder Cup victory over Team USA.
But soon his eyes glazed over – and these weren’t happy tears.
McIlroy opened up about the emotional toll of the previous couple of days. Europe captain Luke Donald turned and put his hand on the shoulder of the world No 2.
Cracks were beginning to appear. But McIlroy refused break.
In this post-match press conference, or in the bearpit of Bethpage Black Golf Course where, throughout a draining weekend, I had watched him endure vile, vulgar abuse from a rabid American crowd. It was ugly.
To be in New York last week was to witness human degradation dressed in polo shirts and slacks. It was impossible to follow McIlroy and his teammates around this state park and not recoil at the grim aftertaste of a dangerous cocktail: when patriotic fervor is poisoned by booze and hate, and a warped sense of what is funny and what is OK.
At the end of it all, there were two lingering questions. Firstly, how? How did McIlroy withstand the tidal wave of insults that rained down from the galleries. Nothing, it seemed, was off limits.
He was called a ‘f****t’; his wife Erica Stoll was branded a ‘wh**e’. He was taunted with cruel allegations about his private life; Erica was even struck by a drink thrown from the crowd. And yet he still collected three and a half vital points for Team Europe.
Police dogs and state troopers had to be called in after Rory McIlroy was subject to vile abuse
McIlroy and his wife Erica Stoll were taunted during the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black
McIlroy struggled to contain his emotions as he opened up on all he had endured in New York
That brings us to the second ‘why’ that hung over this ugly spectacle: Why was McIlroy the victim of the most personal and unpleasant abuse Golf has seen in decades?
Yes, every European player was given a rough ride. For a few holes over Sunday lunchtime, I followed England’s Matt Fitzpatrick in his singles match against America’s Bryson DeChambeau.
The Englishman barely looked up from his notebook all weekend. But that didn’t save him from taunts about his height, his teeth, his family and his pace of play.
The unfortunate truth, though? That was gentle ribbing compared to what they hurled at McIlroy. So, why? Why here? Why him?
More often than not, golf tournaments unfold to a soundtrack of polite applause and pantomime groans. There are no police dogs or state troopers patrolling the fairways. In fact, everywhere else on the PGA and DP World Tours, McIlroy is golf’s pied piper.
No one, except Tiger Woods, attracts such huge crowds and such adulation. Not even American world No 1 Scottie Scheffler.
And, outside of his native Northern Ireland, arguably no country fawns over McIlroy like America. It’s normally a love-love thing. A couple of days before the Ryder Cup, McIlroy gushed over the US and called it the ‘best country in the world.’
So what changed? Well the Ryder Cup is unlike any other event. It is the greatest team competition in golf, a spectacle brimming with history and drama and national pride. It has always sparked different emotions. The away team always steels itself for some hostility.
‘They deserve it,’ one American fan told the BBC. ‘They’re in New York City, what do they expect?’
And in the build up to this Ryder Cup, some on the US team stoked those fires.
The Team Europe star clashed with the crowds during a raucous weekend of Ryder Cup action
McIlroy blows kisses to American supporters on the first tee ahead during the Ryder Cup
Bryson DeChambeau goaded that Europe wasn’t ‘ready’ for what awaited them.
‘Whatever expectation they should have [about the fans], they should double it,’ he said. Collin Morikawa, meanwhile, outright urged the crowd to create ‘absolute chaos.’
On Saturday night, after the worst of the vitriol, US captain Keegan Bradley did not take kindly to being asked if – given their words – his team had to shoulder any responsibility for the brutal atmosphere.
Donald prepared his players for a hostile welcome but no one embodied Europe better than McIlroy. He is the team’s best player and its on-course figurehead. That was always going to make him a target.
‘He’s just too damn good,’ one US fan said. Another said the Northern Irishman cops abuse ‘because we love him. That’s the awful reality. We love him… except during these couple of days.’
There is another inescapable truth. McIlroy has endured more than most golfers – both on and off the course.
He has suffered high-profile meltdowns, most notably at last year’s US Open. He has also experienced plenty of turbulence in his private life. To be clear, none of that justifies the personal, puerile insults aimed at him or his family. And no doubt most golf fans don’t care for salacious rumors about his love life.
But at Bethpage there were plenty of morons mining for sticks, any stick, to beat someone with. And unfortunately, they don’t have to dig as deep with McIlroy.
He filed for divorce from Erica in May last year, before U-turning on the decision a month later. He has gone through sporting heartbreak in front of the watching world. What ammunition, for instance, would the casual sports fan have to lob at Sepp Straka?
Of course, McIlroy bites back. On Saturday, he barked for baying fans to ‘shut the f*** up’.
McIlroy appears to make an offensive gesture to abusive American fans during the first day
Stoll (right, with Shane Lowry’s wife, Wendy) was subjected to horrific abuse while watching
On another hole, he pointed towards different sections of the crowd and said to each of them: ‘F*** you.’
He also led chants against the US side: ‘Are you watching, Donald Trump?’
No doubt, some will argue that McIlroy must accept the taunts if he is happy to dish them out.
When asked about the abuse he received this weekend, the Northern Irishman insisted: ‘Golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.’
Those words have sparked allegations of ‘hypocrisy’ and suggestions that he must practice what he ‘preaches.’
As former US captain Paul Azinger put it: ‘Which is it Rory? Is it that golf is held to a higher standard or are you just going to “F you” the fans and act that like that’s okay?
‘I love Rory, but you can’t say that. You can’t say the fans need to behave better and then in the meantime lay them to waste. You can’t do both. You have got to be one or the other.’
It’s nonsense, of course. No one on Team Europe would argue they should be given a hero’s welcome on foreign soil.
But there is a difference between playful jabs and personal attacks. Between stoking rivalries and accepting feral abuse.
And too often at Bethpage Black, through the haze of beers and badly fitting chinos, too many fans strayed the wrong side of that line.
