NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Do you remember the Ryder Cup? European golf fans surely do. As for American golf fans, well, maybe it’s better they didn’t. But on the grounds at Aronimink Golf Club for the PGA Championship, it’s clear that the PGA of America certainly does.
To quickly refresh your memory, it was a walloping, with Team Europe taking an 11.5–4.5 lead into Sunday singles, and while a brief run by the Americans made it feel like a miracle might be possible, ultimately, the Europeans took a road Ryder Cup with relative ease.
But even worse than the beating Team USA took on the course was the beating Team USA’s fans deserved to take on Saturday. After getting smacked in the first day of the event, American fans at Bethpage Black showed up rowdy and ready on Saturday, and crossed more than a few lines while hurling insults and jeers at their European foes.
It was a bad look for Team USA to lose that badly, and a bad look for Team USA fans for handling it so poorly, but at the end of the day it was a really bad look for the PGA of America, who as hosts of the Ryder Cup were the ones running the event and responsible for keeping things in check. The Ryder Cup is an inherently raucous event, and the line between intense rivalry and genuinely mean-spirited barbs can be thin. But with great power comes great responsibility, and as Saturday played out, it was clear that things had gotten out of hand.
But this week at the PGA Championship, it appears that the PGA of America has learned from its past mistakes, and is taking a more proactive approach to stemming the vitriol that could potentially boil over.
Across Aronimink Golf Club, the leaderboards updating fans with the latest scores and players on the tee also mix in a few messages supporting positive fandom and good sportsmanship.
“Respect every player,” reads one. “Support great play, no matter who it comes from,” reads another.
Hilariously, a few of the messages try their best to toe the line between encouraging fans to cheer, but not cheer too intensely.
“Make it an atmosphere players respect and remember,” pleaded the scoreboard. O.K., so what decibel point threshold should we be aiming for? Anything softer than 75 decibels (a vacuum cleaner's noise level according to Yale) might not be worth remembering, but anything louder than 107 decibels (a power mower, per Yale) might no longer be respecting the game.
“Bring the energy,” read one slide before giving way to another that said, “Respect the moment.”
Credit to the PGA of America. Heading into the greater Philadelphia area, it’s not surprising that the reputation of the area’s fans might have gotten into the heads of those running the tournament, especially after the fracas that unraveled at Bethpage Black. There’s nothing wrong with being proactive about supporting good sportsmanship. That is a positive thing!
That said, it is also at least a little bit funny. There were meetings about this. There were sheets of paper handed back and forth with phrases like “Respect the players, cheer the plays,” written down, crossed out and punched up. The amount of people who had to clear “Make it an atmosphere players respect and remember” feels like it had to be at least four, with two meetings that could have been emails locking in the signage.
And to the credit of the fans during Thursday’s round, everyone was rather well-behaved. Dallas resident Scottie Scheffler got a bit of a jeering at the hands of Eagles fans on the green, but it was very much of the good-natured variety. Following Rory McIlroy’s entire round, I only heard two chants of “E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES” all day. If you had set the over/under at 4.5, I would have taken the over thinking I had easy money, and lost.
Philly fans are one of a kind, heckling Scottie Scheffler for being a Cowboys fan.
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) May 14, 2026
(via Frank_Mcfillin3) pic.twitter.com/vWm122vMZQ
Things may heat up a bit as the weekend gets going. At the U.S. Open a few years ago, a proxy Ryder Cup broke out as American Bryson DeChambeau chased down McIlroy to win on Sunday. Should a similar dynamic unfold this Sunday, it’s possible the cheers get a bit more intense, but if they do, it’s clear the PGA of America is already thinking about how to best handle the situation.
More Golf from Sports Illustrated
- Dustin Johnson Will Play This Weekend at the PGA, but He’s Not Sure What’s Next
- Garrick Higgo Did the Right Thing Before His Second Round Tee Time After Being Late at the PGA Championship
- Michael Block Doesn’t Want This to Be His Last PGA Championship
- Garrick Higgo's Surreal Post-Round Interview Was Must-See TV
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This Is the Correct Way to Cheer at the PGA Championship, According to the PGA of America.
