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Comedian Heather McMahan has spoken up about her controversial Ryder Cup moment that resulted in her resignation as the designated hype woman of the first tee after she participated in hostile chants about Rory McIlroy.
McMahan stepped down from her duties on Saturday after a video of her participating in fan-led “F— you, Rory” chants circulated on social media. The PGA of America released a short statement Saturday night confirming that McMahan would not be back for the final day on Sunday.
“Heather McMahan has extended an apology to Rory McIlroy and Ryder Cup Europe and has stepped down from hosting the first tee of the Ryder Cup.”
McMahan addressed the situation during her podcast “Absolutely Not” on Wednesday, where she said that she immediately apologized to McIlroy and Team Europe. But she dismissed initial reports that she led the chants and added context about the “toxic” crowds and what ultimately led to the incident.
“I understand my responsibility in this. However, it is a little interesting because I do think there needs to be some context around what exactly happened.”
McMahan said she was unclear about her role as the host of the first tee and that she eventually understood it as her job was to “hype” the crowd up. After Friday’s sessions, McMahan said Saturday took a different path.
“We came out full throttle,” she recalled. “The word I had gotten from the team was we needed to get everybody hyped, hyped, hyped. Team America is coming out, we need to be so out of control, so full throttle, and cheers and chants and getting everybody to truly pump up the team and get the energy going.”
TEAM USA RYDER CUP LEGEND CALLS OUT RORY MCILROY FOR HYPOCRISY ABOUT GOLF FANS
She claimed that as the rowdy crowd made its way in early Saturday morning, her job of entertaining quickly shifted.
“I’m hired as a comedian, but unfortunately, the gig kind of turned into a little bit more of like a court jester, pep rally, cheerleader, and we were trying to figure it out as we went.”
McMahan said that despite trying to lead chants involving the names of American players, she was “getting booed.”
“These guys don’t want anything to do with it. They’re like, ‘This is New York, we wanna get rowdy.’ And that’s the way it went. The crowd started to get really fratty, really intense, really quick.”
McMahan said the energy of the crowd was “not the vibe,” and while she did repeat the chant, she immediately recognized her fault in participating.
“I made the absolute horrible mistake of saying it back to them once. And if you watch the video I’m kind of laughing to myself, also, like question mark, like, ‘F— you, Rory?’”
“I will take full responsibility and sincerely apologize to Rory and Team Europe for saying that. It was so foolish of me. I did not start the chant. I was just like that narrative to get out there,” she later added.
Fans at Bethpage Black came under scrutiny for their treatment of Team Europe players throughout the weekend. McIlroy condemned the fan behavior, adding, “I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf.”
“I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,” he said.
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