Through two days of play, the behaviour of the Ryder Cup fans in Hazeltine has almost been as much of a talking point as the quality of the golf on show.
Never before have the fans been so raucous, bordering on downright abusive to the European players. Even in Medinah, Illinois four years ago - when it was extremely loud - the Chicagoan crowd whooped and hollered for Bubba Watson and the American team without any slurs towards the Europeans. It hasn't been this bad since Brookline in 1999.
US Ryder Cup Fans
Not like in Minnesota. A number of fans have been ejected, and even the American team has felt the need to try to hush the crowd. It boiled over when Rory McIlroy had someone kicked out for crossing the line. When asked about it afterwards, the world number three was keen to play the incident down - labelling it as a small minority, but that it fuelled his great play:
Someone said a few derogatory things I thought were over the line. That particular guy, who is in a small minority, just took it a bit too far.
It's a tough environment but we expect that. There have been some boundaries crossed. I let it get to me a couple of times which I probably shouldn't have.
It fuelled me a lot. The more they shouted, the better we played, so I hope they shout at us all day on Sunday.
Padraig Harrington, the European vice-captain who was following McIlroy and Thomas Pieters in their victorious matches on Saturday, compared it to the vitriol in Brookline - and that it wasn't helping the Americans at all. Harrington said that you could see McIlroy rise to it, saying with a grin:
One guy yelled at him and called him average. I don't think Rory's ever been called average in his whole life. That was a serious fail.
It wasn't just McIlroy either, Sergio Garcia really wasn't enjoying the crowd:
I love playing in America and my girlfriend is American, but the 15% that are really bad makes them look bad, and I feel ashamed for my girlfriend.
Irrespective of the score. The US players are policing the fans as they are embarrassed of there behavior. Shame some spoiling this...
— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) October 1, 2016
European captain Darren Clarke played down the crowd, saying that the crowd are just enjoying themselves, some a little too much - but Jordan Spieth joined Bubba Watson's efforts on Friday in trying to hush the crowd. While the crowd turned on Bubba, Spieth seemed to realise that the taunting wasn't helping the American team:
There were times it would quiet down and you would get a fan or two that would just yell and single people out.
"We wanted to hush them down so they were able to hit under the same conditions we were. I think that's fair.
"We wanted to beat them at their best and we thought it would be fair to make sure we did our part in giving them the opportunity we had when we were hitting shots."
With Rory McIlroy teeing up first against the American's top performer Patrick Reed in the singles, we're in for a long day's golf. That match tees off at 5.04 pm Irish time.
