Ryder Cup 2016: Danny Willett defends brother's comments

European team member Danny Willett has said that his brother was right when he criticised American golf fans prior to the Ryder Cup.

Peter Willett called US supporters a "baying mob of imbeciles".

Danny Willett, the Masters champion, had a poor Ryder Cup debut, failing to win a point as Europe lost 17-11.

"Tried my best but played poorly," he said on social media. "Unfortunately some American fans showed that @P_J_Willett was in fact correct."

The 29-year-old Englishman added: "Still shows that sometimes fans don't know when to call it a day... Shame really."

Earlier, he had used a four-letter expletive at a news conference following Europe's loss - their first since 2008.

Asked to describe his first Ryder Cup experience, he said, "S***. Being honest. Sorry. Would you like me to elaborate? Really s***."

In his article in National Club Golfer magazine Peter Willett, a teacher in Solihull, West Midlands, wrote that Europe needed to "silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants" and "smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives and resentful children".

He went on to describe Americans as "fat, stupid, greedy and classless".

Danny Willett apologised for the article before the event, describing it as "a bad article written at a bad time", but he was still the subject of abuse from sections of the crowd at Hazeltine, Minnesota.

Rory McIlroy was also heckled, prompting him to ask for one man who verbally abused him to be ejected on Saturday.

"At times, it went a little bit too far, but, you know, that's to be expected," said the Northern Irishman.

"When you are teeing off in the morning and you're seeing people on the first tee with a beer in their hand and matches aren't finishing until late in the afternoon.... I know I would be done at that point.

"A couple of people out there crossed the line, but we'll take it on the chin. We'll move on and we'll definitely not encourage anything like that to happen in France next time around."

Europe will attempt to regain the Ryder Cup when the two teams line up again in 2018 at Le Golf National in Paris.

"First and foremost, we wouldn't encourage any sort of retaliation," added McIlroy. "That's just not who we are. That's not what we do.

"It's just a very small minority. Ninety-five per cent of the people out there are absolutely fantastic, they really are."

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Analysis

BBC Radio 5 live golf pundit Andrew Murray on Danny Willett

"It's two o'clock in the morning and he's had one or two beers probably. I don't think it's a particularly wise thing to say, but we're no angels over here either.

"We gave the Americans some serious stick in previous Ryder Cups. They did overstep the mark, there's no question about that, and some of it was alcohol fuelled."