Rory McIlroy has drawn a hard line between passion and responsibility, and this time his frustration isn’t aimed at the fans alone. The Northern Irishman was very vocal about all the heckling he and his teammates had to go through at the 2025 Ryder Cup. He thought that the fans were more focused on abusing them than cheering for their team. Now, he has opened up about who else, apart from the fans, is to blame here, and it’s the American captain Keegan Bradley.

“Keegan and I have talked about this. I think you have to play into the home-field advantage. Absolutely. But I think whenever during the competition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the stuff that we heard on the course, I think there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the teammates to be like, let’s just calm down here, let’s try to play this match in the right spirit,” Rory McIlroy said on The Overlap podcast.

“And some of them did that, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week of being the captain. And I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night, and he didn’t. But in fairness, Sunday was a little bit better. It seemed like the rhetoric had calmed down a bit.”

The 2025 Ryder Cup occurred from September 26-28, 2025, at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. The European team defended its title with a narrow 15-13 victory over the U.S., marking their first away win in the U.S. since 2012. On the first two days, the European team created a massive lead and entered the Singles showdown with an 11.5 to 4.5 lead.

But it was not easy at all. Rory McIlroy and almost every other member of Team Europe faced heckles at Bethpage Black. Even before the first tee, the Ryder Cup announcer encouraged chants of “F**k you, Rory.” And the heckles never stopped. Fans tried to disturb the 2025 Masters champion whenever he would try to putt. Some fans even threw a beer can at him, which hit his wife, Erica Stoll. Things got so heated up that at one point McIlroy had to confront the American fans as he responded with “shut the f— up.”

It was not just him, though. Fans were commenting on Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre’s physiques. After the Ryder Cup, MacIntyre shared an Instagram post revealing all the slander he endured. From “Eat another burger, Bobby?” and “Milk bottle,” to “Bobby Mac & Cheese” and “When you starting Ozempic?” he faced a lot of abuse.

Rory McIlroy acknowledged home advantage but faulted the leadership. He says that Keegan Bradley should have intervened to make things a little calmer. Since Bradley was the US captain, he had the most significant say in it. The 5x major champion believes that if he had said something, things would have been less hectic for the European team.

But Keegan Bradley has an entirely different say in this. The US Ryder Cup captain defended American fans’ behavior. Instead, he blamed himself and the team for getting them on the edge. The 8x PGA Tour winner said that the crowd was just “passionate.” He denied that their intensity crossed a line.

In fact, Rory McIlroy passed on some comments about Keegan Bradley’s leadership during the Ryder Cup, which strained their relationship. But he then said that it was just deliberate gamesmanship.

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Rory McIlroy clears the air on “beef” with Keegan Bradley

The 29x PGA Tour winner revealed the gamesmanship tactic during The Shotgun Start’s 2025 Year in Review episode. Keegan Bradley had the opportunity to captain the Ryder Cup team and play in the biennial event. But since he was in his prime at the time, Rory McIlroy didn’t want Bradley to play. Therefore, he kept telling him that an American pro cannot do both.

“It was a little bit of gamesmanship when I kept saying you can’t do both, and whatever, obviously I’m trying to get in the heads and trying to do anything I can to be that person for Europe,” McIlroy admitted.

Besides admitting the mind games, the Northern Irishman also acknowledged that Bradley was put into a very tight spot. The 8x PGA Tour winner is, without any doubt, one of the best golfers in the world. Therefore, it was challenging for him to decide whether to take both responsibilities. Ultimately, he decided to focus on the leadership role.

Rory McIlroy admitted that it wasn’t sincere of him to question Bradley. Thus, in the Shotgun Start episode, he also showed sympathy for how tough the situation was for his American counterpart. The Northern Irishman indicated that any personal strain between them after the event was short-lived.

While Rory McIlroy believes that Keegan Bradley could have intervened, he doesn’t hold him entirely responsible for what went down at Bethpage Black. Their opinions remain divided on where the fans should have drawn the line.