Actress and comedian Heather McMahan has responded to public backlash after leading a chant of 'f*** you, Rory,' at Rory McIlroy during last week's Ryder Cup on Long Island.

'It's [sic] was a really tough scene,' McMahan wrote on TikTok in response to another post. 'I did not start the chant, but I deeply regret responding back to the crowd.'

McIlroy and his wife were both targeted by American fans as the Europeans cruised to an easy Ryder Cup victory over the weekend. McMahan has since faced significant criticism over her role in that abuse, but both she and some supporters are questioning why she became the face of the ugliness at the famed Bethpage Black course.

As influencer Pamela Wurst Vetrini wrote on TikTok, 'thousands of men behaved poorly.'

'They were screaming expletives; they were throwing things at women,' Vetrini said online. 'The U.S. played poorly. The whole U.S. team performed poorly. And all of it is because of one female comedian. You have got to be kidding me.'

McMahan has since issued an apology to McIlroy and stepped down from her emcee role, but she, too, has questioned why she is taking the blame for thousands of bad actors at the Ryder Cup.

'I apologized but I agree it [was a] little Salem-witch-esque blaming me for the New York sports scene,' McMahan wrote.

McIlroy did fire back at his antagonists during the Ryder Cup, telling several individuals: 'F*** you.'

Since then, McIlroy has called on the sport to do better.

'I don't think we should ever accept that in golf,' he said. 'I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week. Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.

'Sometimes this week we didn't see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup. We will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable.

'Come and support your team. I think if I was an American, I would be annoyed … I didn't hear a lot of shouts for Scottie [Scheffler] today, but I heard a lot of shouts against me. It's like, support your players. That's the thing.

'It was a rough week for all of us. But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played. I chirped back a few times because it got to me a few times, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that.'