
Keegan Bradley receives barb from Europe fans as Ryder Cup fever hits The Open
Keegan Bradley copped it from European fans as Ryder Cup fever made its way to The Open.
The American skipper was minding his own business walking off the ninth tee during the second round at Royal Portrush just as a giant roar went up from the Rory McIlroy Army nearby.
McIlroy's birdie putt at the fourth caused an eruption of noise and there was also cheering just down the bottom of the next fairway as Bob MacIntyre also tapped in for a birdie of his own at the fifth.
Bradley was having an amiable chat with countryman Daniel Berger at the time as he made his way down back up from the far-end of the Dunluce Links when the impressive work of the European boys going on around him became too much for one excited local to keep inside.
As the USA captain got to within a few yards of the fan lurking just outside the ropes waiting to cross the fairway, the barb of: 'Go on, Europe.' soared into the air aimed right into the lugholes of the New England man.
Bradley has made it clear that he is not going to discourage the home fans from turning up the heat on Luke Donald's side when they get to Bethpage and he himself has been carried by a wave of euphoria during events in his homeland ever since being appointed as the boss.
Chants of 'USA, USA' have met Bradley whenever he has stepped onto a Stateside piece of turf, but this was an opportunity for a home fan to turn the tables and it was not going to be missed.
Bradley gave it the rubber ear as he didn't stop his conversation with Berger and drifted away down the fairway to play his ninth hole.
The Euro boys know it is going to be heavy duty for them when they get to Bethpage in September and made it clear to his team that is going to be ruthless.
Donald gathered his established stars and some team hopefuls together at an East Lothian setting last weekend ahead of the Genesis Scottish Open for a gathering where the squad assembled and enjoyed dinner and a relaxed evening.
Danish kid Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who was at the event, gave an insight into the messaging from the grouping from the skipper as he revealed: 'His message was, you know, we know that the environment we're going to go into in New York is going to be nothing like a European side's ever seen before.
'It's going to be absolutely ruthless and the better we can be at not reacting to whatever might be there emotionally, just kind of keeping our head down and minding our business and sticking together as a group, the stronger we can be as a team.
'One thing is that we have world-class players, but the better we can be as a team, the better chance we have to go get the trophy home with us.'

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