Ryder Cup: Loud coughing American fan escorted away by police

An American fan was escorted off the side of the 18th green by police for appearing to deliberately cough loudly at the very moment Europe’s Viktor Hovland was taking his crucial putt for a birdie.

The Norwegian, playing in his first Ryder Cup, had a long putt opportunity to help salvage a critical point at the end of a disappointing first day for the reigning Ryder Cup champions as Team Europe were behind having only won one match.

Hovland proceeded to narrowly miss his putt which was then followed by another long-distance missed birdie putt from USA’s Justin Thomas to tie the four-ball match.

Several of the European team, who had gathered to watch the last of the day’s four-balls, looked across angrily towards the group of fans on the left side of the green where the cough had come from.

Soon after the match had finished, several police marshals approached the fan area and other fans pointed out the American fan who had interrupted the match.

The police advised him they would be escorting him off the course and the marshals took him directly to the south car park on the back of a golf buggy, which inadvertently seemed to be a reward rather than a punishment given the extensive long walks to the shuttle buses at the Whistling Straits Course in Wisconsin.

This wasn’t the only example of unsporting behaviour shown by the American fans as only moments earlier there was another inappropriate contribution when a supporter shouted loudly towards Jon Rahm to get his attention.

The Spanish player, who had just tied his four-ball match and had stayed to watch the last match with several other European players reacted warmly by turning towards the fan and waving back.

Team Europe have a momentous task now to retain the trophy they won in Paris in 2018 going into the second day’s play trailing by four points. It would always be an uphill struggle for either team to make such a comeback, especially when playing away from home.

All golf fans will however remember the remarkable comeback at the “Miracle of Medinah” in 2012 when Europe overcame the same four-point deficit, albeit with only one day’s play remaining rather than two, away from home in Chicago.

However, the extent of the home advantage is even greater this year given that very few European fans have been able to travel across to the USA due to the ongoing 18-month long travel restrictions imposed on the vast majority of Europe.

One exception was remarkably given to the famous small group of European fans called the “Guardians of the Cup” who are from the UK, after they were given an 11th-hour waiver last Sunday to travel across this week to the States to provide the usual colour, humour, songs and contribute to what should be a fun, competitive atmosphere for the top golfers in the world to play in.

It will be very interesting to see how the American fans will react over the final two days of the tournament if Europe somehow start to turn around this match.

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