Not much has gone right for the Americans at Bethpage Black this weekend, and those failures have trickled all the way down to the celebrities hired to introduce the golfers on the first tee.
During Saturday’s Ryder Cup matches, U.S. actress and comedian Heather McMahan was hired by the PGA of America to host festivities at the first tee. And while McMahan was presumably hired to fire up the pro-American crowd in New York, she took her job a bit too far. Per Deadline, “McMahan was captured on social media seemingly shouting a ‘f*** you, Rory’ chant into a megaphone at the first tee of the event in a bid to get the U.S. crowd amped up.”
The comedian subsequently apologized to the golfer after the viral clip took off, and stepped down from her role as part of the Ryder Cup’s “hype team.” The PGA of America said in a statement: “Heather has extended an apology to Rory Mcllroy and Ryder Cup Europe and has stepped down from hosting the first tee of the Ryder Cup.”
McIlroy has been subject to a lot of abuse from the American crowd throughout the weekend. On Saturday, that frustration boiled over as he was caught on a hot mic telling fans to “shut the f*** up.” On Sunday, video surfaced of McIlroy’s wife appearing to be hit with a drink while walking through the crowd on Saturday.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.