Ryder Cup vice-captain plays down rumours Europe were ready to quit at Bethpage

A senior member of Europe’s backroom team at the Ryder Cup has downplayed reports that Luke Donald’s players were close to taking unprecedented action at Bethpage Black.

It had been rumoured that the visiting side were ready to stop playing due to the volatile nature of the New York crowd with Rory McIlroy, in particular, subjected to fearsome abuse throughout the week.

McIlroy and his wife, Erica, appeared to be the top targets for the raucous home fans, and the world No 2 was forced to back off from his shot on several occasions as he waited for order to be restored.

Mrs McIlroy was struck by a drink thrown from the crowd on Saturday, and almost every one of Donald’s 12 players have described how they were verbally attacked during the contest.

The unruly behaviour outside the ropes overshadowed Europe’s titanic 15-13 victory as they held off an astonishing fightback from Team USA in the final day’s singles.

PGA of America president Don Rea initially overlooked the crowd trouble before issuing a belated apology to the McIlroy’s and the membership of the PGA.

Chief executive Derek Sprague told the Golf Channel there is "no place for that behaviour at the Ryder Cup”, while American legend and two-time Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson admitted some of the scenes left him feeling “ashamed”

According to a report in the Telegraph, it had been suggested that Europe were giving serious consideration to walking off the course if the situation got any worse.

A source was quoted as saying: “Luke was and the team were so well prepared that they’d discussed what red lines would be and the conclusion was if the fans purposely put a player off during execution of shots then that was a probable reason to temporarily stop play until order was restored.

“Luke had a lot of procedures in place, including this, to control the players environment on the course and it would have been a decision based on captain/vice-captains and players feedback. From what I understand, it got very close to it."

But one of Donald’s assistant captains has insisted that such a drastic reaction as downing tools had not been contemplated.

Speaking to Fried Egg Golf, Eduardo Molinari claimed the priority for the players was to avoid reacting to the abuse, although that proved an impossible task to hold out for the three days of competition.

Asked about the report in the Telegraph, Molinari said: “No, that was never discussed, it was never talked about, so that’s not true at all.

“As a vice-captain, I was walking with the players and marshals, and we were trying our best not to irritate the crowds even more.

“We were trying to be humble and not react to them, which I thought we did a great job of for a day and a half.

“But when you’re exposed to that for 12 hours a day it eventually gets to you, and obviously some players reacted. They’re just normal human beings.

“It would have been impossible for anyone not to react for three straight days with what was going on.”