Ryder Cup: Luke Donald accuses US fans of crossing the line as Team Europe near historic victory

Rory McIlroy and other players subjected to abuse as home crowd and team suffer another miserable day at Bethpage Black

Europe captain Luke Donald, right, says the abuse directed at his players, particularly Rory McIlroy, left, went too far. AP

European captain Luke Donald accused American fans of “crossing the line” after a fractious second day at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

The visiting players, most notably Rory McIlroy, were subjected to heckling throughout both sessions of Saturday’s play.

Comments were repeatedly aimed at McIlroy as he prepared to play shots. At one point in the morning the Northern Irishman shouted at a fan and his afternoon match was held up a number of times as appeals for calm – some from opponent Justin Thomas – were made.

Donald said: “It was loud, it was raucous. What I consider crossing the line is personal insults and making sounds when they are trying to hit on their backswings or very close to when they are trying to go into their routines. That did happen a little bit.”

Much had been made of the hostile reception Europe were likely to be given by a boisterous, partisan New York crowd.

Ultimately, they shut out the noise to win both sessions convincingly on Saturday and open up a commanding 11.5-4.5 lead.

“It’s something we prepared for and we can see, I think, how well they have dealt with it,” Donald said.

US captain Keegan Bradley reacted angrily to suggestions that he or his players might have been responsible for some of the more unsavoury aspects of crowd behaviour.

Bradley has notably been trying to rally fans throughout the week and ran down the 18th fairway with a giant US flag on the final practice day. Collin Morikawa, meanwhile, said he hoped fans would bring “absolute chaos”.

“Ryder Cups are wild I don’t appreciate those words that you just said,” retorted Bradley to Donald in a press conference. “I know what you’re trying to do. The Ryder Cup is full of passionate fans, they’re full of passionate players.

“That isn’t right. I thought the fans were passionate. I wasn’t at Rome but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well. But the fans of New York, from what I have seen, have been pretty good.

“You’re always going to have a few people that cross the line and that’s unfortunate.”

McIlroy has risen above the taunts to deliver crucial points for his team and sounded a diplomatic tone.

“It was a really challenging day. I’m going to sleep well tonight,” he said. “It’s not for me to say – people can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through.”

Team Europe on brink of glory

Despite the distractions, Team Europe won six of the eight points available on Saturday to move within three points of outright victory.

They tightened their grip on the contest with a 3-1 victory in the morning foursomes and for some time a fourball clean sweep looked possible until the hosts clawed the second session back to 3-1.

Emotions boiled over as Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose thrashed Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, while McIlroy delivered another telling point. He and partner Shane Lowry started strongly and then held their nerve in their match against Thomas and Cameron Young.

Ultimately, a birdie two by McIlroy on the 14th proved crucial but it took some nerveless putting down the stretch to hang on to the lead before victory was secured on the last.

Temperatures were also high as Rose and Fleetwood claimed a 3&2 win over world number one Scheffler – suffering a remarkable fourth defeat from four – and the fiery DeChambeau.

Rose was the key figure, winning four holes thanks to some clinical putting, but an argument broke out between Fleetwood and DeChambeau after the 15th was halved.

The incident was sparked by Rose asking DeChambeau’s caddie to move out of his eye line as he putted and the pair needed to be separated as they walked to the next tee.

Yet there was no way back for the American pair and the match ended – with handshakes all round – after halving the 16th.

It was Fleetwood’s second win of the day, having successfully combined with McIlroy in the morning, and it looked like Jon Rahm could follow suit.

The Spaniard and Sepp Straka led by one after 16 against JJ Spaun and Xander Schauffele but late errors saw them surrender the last two holes to lose by one.

Yet while that took some gloss off the day for Europe, it was immediately countered by Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick snatching victory on the 18th.

The final match of the day had been tame by comparison until exploding into life as Fitzpatrick played a brilliant bunker shot to within inches of final hole.

Hatton, summoned only at the last minute after Viktor Hovland pulled out with a neck injury, then pitched to a similar distance and the Europeans took a one-hole win.

Scheffler paired with McIlroy

Scheffler will have to earn his first point at this year’s Ryder Cup the hard way after being paired against McIlroy in Sunday’s singles.

Scheffler has made unwanted history by becoming the first player since 1979 to lose all four matches during the team formats.

And things do not get much easier as he comes up against rival McIlroy in Sunday’s fourth singles match, teeing off at 8.35pm UAE.

Hovland remains a doubt for Team Europe but is slated to go out last against Harris English.

Full singles line-up, all times UAE

8.02pm: Cameron Young v Justin Rose

8.13pm: Justin Thomas v Tommy Fleetwood

8.24pm: Bryson DeChambeau v Matt Fitzpatrick

8.35pm: Scottie Scheffler v Rory McIlroy

8.46pm: Patrick Cantlay v Ludvig Aberg

8.57pm: Xander Schauffele v Jon Rahm

9.08pm: JJ Spaun v Sepp Straka

9.19pm: Russell Henley v Shane Lowry

9.30pm: Ben Griffin v Rasmus Hojgaard

9.41pm: Collin Morikawa v Tyrrell Hatton

9.52pm: Sam Burns v Robert MacIntyre

10.03pm: Harris English v Viktor Hovland