By Oisin Doherty,Rich Jones

Copyright irishmirror

Rory McIlroy seemed to snap at the Ryder Cup spectators at Bethpage Black as he was caught making a rude gesture towards the crowd whilst departing the 11th green. McIlroy was greeted at the tee with a harsh three-word chant before he’d even struck a shot at the beginning of Friday’s foursomes. By the time he emerged for the afternoon fourballs alongside close mate and fellow countryman Shane Lowry, Team Europe had seized control after Team USA endured a catastrophic opening, leaving supporters stunned and Bryson DeChambeau embarrassed. McIlroy and partner Tommy Fleetwood dominated their morning match, beating Collin Morikawa and Harris English five and four to put a point on the board. And he raced into a lead along with Lowry, going two-up after the front nine against Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay. However, McIlroy seemed riled at one stage while leaving the 11th green alongside Lowry after going two-up, with TV cameras showing him staring into the crowd and flipping the bird. Fan behavior has been a hot topic ahead of the tournament, and US rival Justin Thomas told fans in New York exactly where the line is when it comes to heckling players. Speaking ahead of the tournament, McIlroy discussed the challenge of playing in an unfamiliar and unfriendly setting in the United States. He said: “I think everyone has to find their own balance of what works for them or what – you know, we’re playing in an environment that we are not really used to or we don’t get to play in very often. “I’m very lucky, I get a lot of support pretty much everywhere I go when I play golf, and it’s going to feel a little different for me this week. “But that’s to be expected, and that’s totally understandable. I feel at times in the Ryder Cup, I have engaged too much with that, too much with the crowd. “But then there’s times where I haven’t engaged enough. So it’s really just trying to find the balance of using that energy from the crowd to fuel your performance. “I felt like at Hazeltine, I probably engaged too much at times, and then Whistling Straits, I didn’t engage enough and felt pretty flat because of it. It’s just trying to find that balance. “I can’t tell anyone on the team what that balance is. They really have to find it themselves. But that’s the challenge of playing away, right. “You’re not just trying to perform to your best level, but someone in the American Team holes a putt, and then you have to try to follow them in. But you know, you’ve got the crowd going crazy and you’re waiting for them to quiet. “There’s a lot of little things like that that I guess takes you out of your normal routine that you just have to deal with, and that’s part of the challenge of this week.”