Browsing: Bethpages

One of the most contentious and unsavory Ryder Cups has given way to predictable handwringing over fan behavior last week at Bethpage Black, where members of Team Europe endured days of relentless ridicule and vocal abuse.

PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague agreed to an interview Tuesday with GolfChannel.com to address fan behavior and the future of Bethpage as a major championship venue (transcript below, edited slightly for clarity; video above):

Golf Channel: I spoke with a PGA member this morning who told me he was disgusted with some fan behavior at Bethpage, what do you tell your membership about what happened?

Derek Sprague: Certainly, it’s not the values of the PGA of America or our 30,000 PGA golf professionals who work every day in this game to bring joy and laughter and fun to golf. Certainly, we did not witness that, there’s no place for that [poor fan behavior] at the Ryder Cup, no place for it in the game of golf and we are not happy with what happened last week.

GC: What was the plan for crowd control and how did it evolve?

DS: We’ve been planning for a number of years going into this event, like we do for all our major championships. Planning with law enforcement and other security agencies and we certainly did this at Bethpage. We knew the Ryder Cup is the biggest event in golf and transcends many sports. We worked closely with the New York State Police, they were the lead agency and then we had several layers of security including private security companies to deal with the amount of fans which is typical of a Ryder Cup. It’s not like we had any large increase in [fan] numbers.

We worked with them on the plan and like any live sporting event we made sure we adjusted as the days went on and we reacted to fan behavior, including removing a number of fans from the event or moving them away from players they were abusing. We dealt with it swiftly and efficiently as it was made known to us. It’s a big golf course out there and we had plenty of law enforcement with the players, both sides of the fairways and when you’re looking at a large crowd it can be challenging to identify. But when they were identified they were dealt with very quickly.

GC: Specifically, when was the call made Saturday to increase security with Rory McIlroy’s group?

DS: As the CEO I let our team deal with that in the moment, let them do their job. I have an incredible amount of trust and confidence with our security consultant team. They were working very closely with our [operations] team and the New York State Police and all the other agencies.

That’s an example of how we reacted, when we heard those things going on Saturday we immediately redirected more of the security forces to those matches, whether it was Rory’s match or other matches or fan behavior in certain parts of the golf course. On Sunday we made sure to keep that amount of security in place, made sure it was what we felt, and our security consultants felt, was the right amount of people to make sure that, one, the players were safe and the fans would be dealt with swiftly if they got out of line.

GC: Bethpage will host the 2033 PGA Championship, based on what happened last week is there any thought of moving that championship?

DS: There’s no thought of that. Bethpage Black is just a great championship layout. We will take all our debriefs from this week, everything from logistics – we were not perfect on logistics, either – and we will be looking at that as well for the next two championships over the next eight years as well as making sure that we have the right plans in place.

That’s one thing that I think we do well, we learn from this event like we learn from all of our events. We try to make the next PGA Championship or the next Ryder Cup the best it’s ever been. That’s what we intend to do here and carry what we learned from this past week into those championships going forward.

GC: Does the PGA take any responsibility for the pre-event messaging that the crowds were going to be large, loud and difficult for the European team?

DS: We take responsibility for the fan behavior, but New York fans, we knew going into this that they are passionate. They love their sports teams here and that’s what makes the Ryder Cup special, that they are passionate on both sides.

I’ve been to nine Ryder Cups, I’ve been to a number of them overseas as well as here. They are passionate on both sides, and certainly we had a small number of fans that crossed the line this past week, but I don’t think it’s indicative of every fan. I’ve received e-mails and text messages, fans had great experiences this week. Whether they may not have been with those particular matches in the heat of the battle that had some people cross the line. It’s been mixed, but certainly we want to improve and we know the fans are very passionate in that market. But there are no plans to change that venue, it’s a great venue.

Sprague on Ryder Cup crowd control procedures

PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague joins Golf Central to lay out the security procedures at the Ryder Cup and the responses to heckling fans throughout the event.

GC: Why is Bethpage Black, as a venue for the PGA of America, important enough to offset that fan behavior?

DS: Having five great golf courses at Bethpage, Bethpage Black obviously standing out as a championship venue, is a great example of a private-public partnership.

It has a lot of space, a lot of space for our vendors. It has a lot of space for corporate hospitality. This week we had helicopter pads on one of the golf courses, the polo field was the staging area. That’s one thing when we select sites the golf course is just one box to check, we want to make sure it’s a championship golf course, but we also have to look outside the ropes. We need a lot of space today for TV compounds, our vendors, corporate hospitality. We have a lot of infrastructure and we just need a lot of space.

That’s why Bethpage Black lends itself so well to a major championship like the PGA Championship or the KPMG Women’s PGA (2028) or last week’s Ryder Cup.

GC: Why should fans, on both sides, be confident that there won’t be similar episodes at Hazeltine in 2029?

DS: Any championship that we run, whether it’s the Ryder Cup or any of the other majors, with our partners at Ryder Cup Europe, talking with their leadership there, there is no place for this type of behavior that crosses the line.

Our discussions leading into Adare Manor in two years, we will be talking to their leadership, like we did this year. We had meetings in advance, ‘What are we going to do about the crowds?’ We explained all the protocols we had in place with the New York State Police and they had a level of confidence that it would be dealt with and we’ll do the same thing going into 2027 in Ireland to make sure we uphold the integrity and sportsmanship of the Ryder Cup. When it started in 1927 it was about sportsmanship and integrity of the game and that’s what we want it to continue to be.

It’s unfortunate that people crossed the line last week and I hope it doesn’t take away from the brilliant play of both teams that we witnessed last week.

These were the 24 best players in the world and I think they gave golf fans around the globe just an incredible event to tune into. We saw that with the ratings when the Americans were making a run on Sunday afternoon, people were tuning in. That’s what the Ryder Cup should be remembered by, unfortunately some people had a bad experience and are going to remember it for the fan behavior or the long bus lines or the traffic jam. But let’s not take away from the great play.

GC: Not sure if you had a chance to speak with any Europeans players from last week, but if you did what was your message?

DS: I talked a little to Paul McGinley last night. I haven’t spoken to Rory or Erica [McIlroy], I do plan on sending them an e-mail with my heartfelt apologies because of what occurred. There’s no place for that in the Ryder Cup or the game of golf. I heard Rory say it, we’re better than that in golf. That’s one thing our game has always portrayed when you compare us to other sports is that golf is a great game and people enjoy the game because of the values that golf has.

I can’t wait to reach out to Rory and Erica, and really the entire European team. Rory might have been a target because of how good he is, but the entire European team should not have been subjected to that. I feel badly and I plan on apologizing to them.

GC: How do you keep this from happening again?

DS: I was the co-chair of the Ryder Cup task force back when we started it in 2014. We talked about, really, the team and the captaincies and vice captains, more on the competition side, but certainly we will be doing a debrief internally with our [operations] team and all of our incredible employees with the PGA of America. The Ryder Cup committee, I’m sure, will reflect on this. That task force was designed to determine how we can put the team in the best position to be successful.

We did that in ’14, we won in ’16, we won in ’21, so I think it showed some success. I look forward to, as the new CEO, getting back on that task force or Ryder Cup committee, and see what we can do, not only to make the competition reflect the values of the Ryder Cup but also to give the American team our best chance at success.