FARMINGDALE, NY — Moments after Rory McIlroy was having the last laugh …

After singing and dancing and celebrating with his teammates and large number of Europeans at Bethpage Black.

After raising the Ryder Cup and before being doused in champaign by teammate and Jupiter neighbor Shane Lowry, McIlroy was asked how it felt to turn to the American fans whose behavior at the Ryder Cup was barbaric and embarrassing, tell them to “shut the f*** up,” and then stick his next shot two feet from the pin.

“Very f***ing satisfying,” McIlroy said.

As much as it was nice to see the Americans finally show up the final day of the Ryder Cup and provide unexpected drama, it was hard not to feel good for McIlroy and his teammates after the abuse dished by a handful of yahoos at Bethpage Black all weekend.

“Look, it was a rough week for all of us,” McIlroy said. “But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played.”

The Europeans had a much more stressful day than expected during singles, winning one match — Ludvig Aberg over Patrick Cantlay — and being forced to hold off a charging U.S., whose valiant comeback fell just short, 15-13.

But they survived despite drinks flying out of the stands in their direction and facing a verbal barrage of abuse and personal attacks that forced more security, more law enforcement, more dogs being summoned.

“I wish they had let the dogs off the leashes,” McIlroy said.

He was kidding. We think.

The European team was so shook by the abuse not just aimed at Rory, but his wife, Erica Stoll, that during the winning side’s news conference Justin Rose gave a shout out to Erica for never making a big deal about the situation.

Then Lowry, who was paired with McIlroy during the worst of it, spoke.

“I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy, and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing and the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable,” Lowry said.

The entire European team clapped.

Cheering missed putts, playful taunts, acceptable at Ryder Cup

Cheering missed puts and tee shots that disappear into the rough, that’s acceptable at a Ryder Cup.

Razzing the opponent for not wearing a cap, playful taunts about someone’s long hair, that’s fair. On Day 1, as Aberg was measuring his next shot out of the rough, a fan said, “not good Aberg, not good at all.”

Aberg glanced up and smiled.

All good.

But abusing a player’s wife, shouting deep, personal insults, and hiring a master of ceremonies for the first tee who initiates profane chants … that is unacceptable.

The Americans, to their credit, tried to intervene. Justin Thomas spent much of his match against McIlroy and Lowry gesturing to the crowd to keep it down.

“I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed that people … I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me,” McIlroy said. “It’s like, support your players. That’s the thing.”

McIlroy, ranked No. 2 in the world, lost his singles match to world No. 1 Scheffler, 1-up, on the final day. It was McIlroy’s lone loss in five matches (3-1-1) and Scheffler’s only win after going 0-4 the first two days.

“I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that,” McIlroy said.

Which leads to Ireland, where the Europeans will attempt win a third straight Ryder Cup.

The two-year build-up for New York was as much about the possibility of what happened happening, as it was about the U.S. avenging a poor performance in Rome in 2023, and not being one of the few Ryder Cup teams to lose on home soil.

McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, started putting out the message to his fans on the other side of the Atlantic to show more class in 2027 than the Americans did in 2025.

That will not be hard.

“I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,” McIlroy said. “Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.

“Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. This should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable.”

During the European team’s continued celebration on the team bus, Lowry, standing, his hat on backward, led a song about McIlroy.

“He’s in your head. He’s in your head. Rory, Rory, Rory, is in your head.”

McIlroy sat in his seat and raised the Ryder Cup. The ultimate payback.

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rory McIlroy, Europeans have last laugh with win at Ryder Cup 2025