Ryder Cup fans get raucous as Europe takes strong lead

You know the golf's probably got a little out of hand when the police are called. Men with hats and guns emerged through the trees to the fourth green like they were quashing an insurgency.

- LAWRENCE OSTLERE AT BETHPAGE, NEW YORK

Suffolk County Police, NYPD and Secret Service officers descended on match two - Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy against Justin Thomas and Cameron Young - as this simmering Ryder Cup finally boiled over.

No country in the world does obnoxious golf fans quite like America, and no country in the world does sincerely troubling security presence like America either. It was a heady mix which turned the match into a travelling bear pit, with every passage to the next tee like a tunnel of rage directed at the Europeans, who had to be chaperoned through the chaos.

It conjured memories of a similar moment in Rome two years ago when hat-gate spread across Marco Simone Golf Club and the European crowd ignited. Yesterday afternoon is when it happens, when all the necessary ingredients are in place, when the sun beats down and frustrations niggle and beer takes fans to unholy places they would never ordinarily visit.