By Craig Swan

Copyright dailyrecord

Rory McIlroy wishes the Ryder Cup police dogs had been let loose on the baying mob at Bethpage. And the superstar’s wife Erica has been hailed a star of Europe’s success for staying strong in the wake of atrocious abuse that also saw her hit with a beer can during the sickening rabble. McIlroy emerged from an emotionally-draining week in New York with the trophy in his hands. But, in getting there, he had to suffer incredible levels of brutal behaviour. As idiots lost the plot during shameful Saturday, extra police were drafted onto the scene with dogs also in attendance. McIlroy said: “I wish they had of let the dogs off the leashes. The police out there and the amount of security presence was insane. Look, nothing was going to happen. There wasn’t going to be physical altercation or anything like that, apart from maybe Tommy [ Fleetwood ] and Rosey [Justin Rose] up to the 16th tee yesterday. “But look, there was a lot of language that was unacceptable and abusive behaviour. It’s a minority. The majority of people are true golf fans and are respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest. But there was a small subset of people that behaved a little bit differently than that.” Family members being targeted is a disgraceful scenario and, on the can incident, McIlroy said: “It should be off-limits, but obviously it wasn’t this week. “Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman. She handled everything this week with class and poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating.” At that point, McIlroy’s team-mates waded in to add their voice. Shane Lowry, who was beside McIlroy thrrough much of the torture and suffered plenty himself said: “ 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, and kudos to her for that.” Justin Rose added: “Can I just pick up on that, if you don’t mind, because I actually had no idea that Erica had a beer thrown at her, so fair play. She didn’t bring that to the team room. We didn’t make that a big deal. That’s news to me. That says a lot about the strength of Erica and everybody on this team.” Asked how satisfying it was to tell some lout to “Shut the f**k up” led to McIlroy saying: “Very f**king satisfying. “I’m quite an impulsive character, if you haven’t noticed. Sometimes I’ll engage and sometimes I’ll catch myself and refrain. But I don’t really choose when and it’s just sort of sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. “Look, I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there. 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. So, no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. But we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable. Come and support your home team. Come and support your team. “I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed. I didn’t hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler], but I heard a lot of shouts against me. Support your players. That’s the thing. “It was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played. “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. “I just tried to stay in my own little bubble as much as possible. It was obviously quite difficult to do that at times. I just knew every hole that I completed was a little bit closer to that goal that we all had in mind and that was really the important thing. “I was so appreciative to the vice-captains and Luke and everyone that was out there. Thomas Bjorn walked with me a lot and he kept encouraging me. He kept saying, seven more holes, six more holes, five more holes. “Just knowing that you have that support of your team, it means a lot, especially in an environment like that out there.” In the end, McIlroy had the last laugh. He said after Rome his team were going to win at Bethpage two years later and so they did., He smiled: “It’s nice to be right. I’m not right all the time. I have absolute confidence in this team, absolute confidence in our leader, Luke Donald. The vice captains, the backroom staff, the things that people don’t see behind the scenes. I think we won in Rome and the wheels were set in motion to try to do something that had not been done in over a decade. “We believed a lot in our continuity and I believe that we had a really special group in Rome. Look, I said that in the euphoria of winning a Ryder Cup, but I really felt like we had definitely way more of a chance than we had in Whistling Straits in 2021.”