Danny Willett has admitted his brother Peter's pre-Ryder Cup criticism of American supporters was backed up by the behaviour of some supporters at Hazeltine.

The Masters champion endured a difficult weekend as Europe crashed to a 17-11 defeat, losing his singles match 5&4 against Brooks Koepka on Sunday. That came after his brother had provoked a strong reaction from the home team when he wrote an article for a US golf magazine which referred to American fans as "cretins" and "fat, stupid, greedy, classless, bastards".

“Tried my best but played poorly,” he wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately some American fans showed that @P_J_Willett was in fact correct. Nothing to blame my bad play on.. But still shows that sometimes fans don’t know when to call it a day.. Shame really!!”

The 29-year-old from Sheffield had apologised for his brother’s comments earlier in the week, saying that he was “disappointed” Peter had written the article.

Willett, who was making his Ryder Cup debut after winning at Augusta in April, came away without a single point from his three matches as Europe were beaten for the first time since 2008. Afterwards, he was asked to assess his performance and gave an honest summation.

“Shit,” he said. “Sorry, would you like me to elaborate? Really shit.”

(Guardian service)