Team USA's Collin Morikawa calls on New York fans to ramp it up during Ryder Cup

After wrapping up his nine-hole practice round Wednesday, Tyrrell Hatton spent several minutes signing autographs for young Ryder Cup fans by the putting green in front of the Bethpage clubhouse.

The Englishman neared the end of the line when a boy asked if he would sign his USA hat.

Hatton obliged.

Outside of the occasional smattering of boos during Team Europe’s introduction at Wednesday afternoon’s opening ceremony and some “U-S-A” chants during European practice rounds, the Farmingdale crowd has been friendly. But everyone is preparing for bedlam when the 45th Ryder Cup gets underway Friday morning.

Underwhelmed by the first two practice days that were open to the public, Collin Morikawa challenged the American fans to live up to the hype.

“I'll be honest, I think it's kind of tame so far, Tuesday and Wednesday,” the 28-year-old California native said during his news conference Wednesday afternoon. “I know tomorrow is going to be pretty bad [weather], but I hope Friday is just absolute chaos. I'm all for it. I think it feeds into who we are and the American players and the American team. We want it. We want to use that to our advantage.

“I think every sport uses their home crowd to their advantage, and just because we don't play in a setting like this doesn't mean the craziness of New York and the rest of the country that people are traveling in from, it doesn't mean that we can't use that to our advantage. I think we really have to tap into that. I hope they come strong.

“Watching all these kids, I know they want autographs. But come Friday, I hope they go crazy.”

Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, playing in his fourth Ryder Cup, also praised how hospitable the Bethpage Black crowd has been thus far.

“The job of the home crowd is to support the home team,” he said Wednesday morning. “You wouldn't hold anything against anybody in that way. But yesterday they were amazing. They were very supportive of us, and it's important.”

Of the 12 European players, four are playing in an away Ryder Cup for the first time: Robert MacIntyre, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg and Rasmus Hojgaard. MacIntyre, Straka and Aberg each made their Ryder Cup debuts in the Europeans’ 16 1/2-11 1/2 win in Rome in 2023. Hojgaard is Europe’s lone rookie.

“I think you'd be naive to think it's going to be the same,” said Aberg. “I think the challenge — obviously there's challenges with playing at home, but the biggest challenges are going to be away. I think for me, I was fortunate enough to have a really good experience in Rome, and that being my first one. But I think this one is going to be a little bit different.”

Justin Rose has played in six  Ryder Cups, three on American soil. He specifically talked about the 2012 event at Medinah Country Club in Illinois — a 14 1/2-13 1/2 comeback win for the Europeans that is nicknamed the “Miracle at Medinah” — when reflecting on the hostility of his past road experiences. He noted that this week’s conditions have yet to reach their apex.

“You don't want to compare anything to New York, but I think Chicago was also a big crowd,” he said. “I think the scale of the Ryder Cup seems to have really kind of kicked on massively in the last decade. So I feel like each occasion is getting more and more intense, which is a lot of fun, obviously.

“And I think this one, we don't really know. It's obviously going to ramp up.”

One element of Team Europe’s preparation for Bethpage Black’s atmosphere included the use of virtual reality headsets that mimicked what the course will look and feel like. Rose said he did not spend more than five minutes using it and he “had more fun showing my family.” Hojgaard, playing in his first Ryder Cup, called it a “fun little gimmick.”

“I think there's probably no substitute for being out there,” Cameron Young said.

Young, from Scarborough in Westchester County, owns plenty of experience at Bethpage Black and won the 2017 New York State Open on the course. This week marked his first time back, and he said Tuesday and Wednesday featured “about the most people I've ever seen out on a golf course.”

Come Friday, Young has high expectations for his home fans.

“It's just a very intense group of people, I feel,” he said. “They love to win. They love their teams when they win. I think that is what gets a group like this going.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.