European players were subjected to slurs and crude insults about their families. They were no surprise as public discourse in America has broken down By the time Europe finished the job, finally, on Sunday, the golf had the last word. But, until the thrilling denouement, the lasting memory of this Ryder Cup threatened not to be a single swing of the club so much as the ugly backdrop: galleries that drifted from partisan into venomous and the organizers who let the line slide until it snapped. It didn’t happen all at once. For the first day and a half of golf’s most intense rivalry, it was New York-loud without being unruly. Then Saturday afternoon arrived and the tenor shifted. Rory McIlroy, the visiting lightning rod, kept stepping off shots as volleys of abuse landed in the quiet of his pre-shot routine. Shane Lowry played teammate and minder. Justin Thomas, not exactly a shrinking violet, began shushing his own end of the grandstand so his opponents could putt. Continue reading...

By asking broadcasters not to show any protest against Donald Trump at Sunday’s final, the governing body has caved to fear while contradicting its own history of spectacle

The seven-times major champion is making her 25th appearance in a US Open, facing Karolína Muchová in the same Arthur Ashe Stadium she helped christen in 1997