Reigning Masters champion Danny Willett has apologized for an article written by his brother ahead of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine in which US golf fans were jokingly described as a “baying mob of imbeciles” and a “giggling group of reprobates.”
Willett, who will represent Europe as it faces off against the US in the biennial tournament, told the Golf Channel Wednesday that he had spoken to US team captain Davis Love III about the article and made clear “it’s obviously not the thoughts of myself and of the team.”
In a lengthy piece for the National Club Golfer, Peter Willett offered his opinion on what each side needed to do to win as well as veering off into what he suggested within the article and later on social media was a tongue-in-cheek rant at the US golf public.
Team Europe “need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red,” Peter Willett wrote.
“They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin.
“They need to smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children. Squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.”
Another section of the article also described how an “uncomfortable, anti-American sentiment has started to bubble deep inside” while also sarcastically pleading to Team Europe with the “same sense of fair-mindedness that has permeated this unbiased article” not to lose to those “fat, stupid, greedy, classless, bastards.”
Masters fame
Peter Willett made headlines in April tweeting a string of off-the-cuff remarks as his brother clinched victory at Augusta National.
Although much of what he wrote ahead of the 41st Ryder Cup was clearly in jest, it will likely ratchet up the tension ahead what is always a fiery and keenly fought contest. Team Europe has won eight of the last 10 matches, with the last US victory in 2008.
Danny Willett said he had spoken to his brother Tuesday and “was obviously disappointed in what was said and what was written about the American fans, that obviously took me under their wing fantastically (at The Masters) back in April.”
European captain Darren Clarke also failed to see the funny side, stating “it is not what Danny thinks. It is not what I think. It is not what Team Europe stands for” in comments carried by the Golf channel.