I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. While The Masters might be the greatest annual event on the golfing calendar, if you stretch it out to cover two years, nothing beats the Ryder Cup.
Each January, February and March, what happens in men’s professional golf is viewed through an Augusta National-tinted lens, but the Ryder Cup undercurrent lasts eight times that. Come Monday morning, we’ll already be talking about Adare Manor in 2027 and not just because we’re an Irish media outlet.
By the time we reach the third Friday in September in two year’s time, it’ll be the guts of 24 years since the United States came to Europe and took the trophy home, so, whatever happens at Bethpage, it’s a huge talking point. We’ll be looking at the 24 players who comprise both teams and trying to guess who’ll be on the teams next time round, whose game might drop off, who’ll be over the hill, who might step in to fill the breach, who the golf course might suit and not suit, and who will be team’s respective captains.
But let’s leave that for Monday and beyond… For now, let’s focus on this week.
It’s Tuesday afternoon, at the time of writing, and the week already seems interminable. Like a child awaiting Santa Claus’ arrival, the days leading up seem to crawl. It’s bad enough on a major week, but there’s an extra day to wait at the Ryder Cup.
There are only so many times that we can hear Keegan Bradley talk about what captaining his country means to him, and how doing it at a golf course that he used to sneak onto when at college nearby only makes it extra special.
There are only so many times that Luke Donald can talk about how Europe know that they’re going into the lion’s den in New York and to face New York fans.
It’s all a prelude. At least on a major week, we get tee time announcements on a Tuesday, at the Ryder Cup, we have to wait until the opening ceremony on Thursday to know who is playing on Friday morning. We can make educated guesses as to who plays and who they play with, but who they play against is pure luck of the draw, no matter how much you want to read into the captains second guessing each other.
But that only serves to heighten the anticipation.
With rare exceptions, even Ryder Cups that have been ultimate blowouts on the final scoreboard have given us fleeting hopes on Sunday that it might go down to the wire. Those moments are fantastic. If you’re neutral, there’s the sense that you may be about to witness something special. If you’re a fan of the team that’s leading, then there’s genuine jeopardy and victories that are hard fought are always sweeter. And if you’re a fan of the team that’s losing, then you remember the hope that sport’s greatest gift – victory snatched from the jaws of defeat – might just be in reach.
I may be Irish, and European by extension, but I don’t necessarily cheer for Europe in the Ryder Cup. That’s not because I’m a golf writer, either, and bound by a sense of professionalism over fanaticism – it predates that by a long way.
I just want the contest to still be alive as the final few singles matches enter the closing stretch on Sunday. I root for drama, I root for storylines, and I root for sporting memories.
That’s what I have from Oak Hill in ’95, Valderrama in ’97, Brookline in ’99, The Belfry in ’02, Celtic Manor in ’10 and Medinah in ’12.
The European sides that traveled in 2016 and 2021 weren’t good enough and weren’t playing well enough to win or to even make it close, but the same can be said of teams in the past who’ve upset the odds. But the European side this year are a different story. They’re not relying on team unity to make the collective that much greater than the sum of their individual parts – the individual parts are arguably a match for or even greater than the opposition.
But on the flip side, the argument can be made that the Americans have been guilty of complacency, believing that they are the better team and will show it, only to be ambushed by the overperformance of the opposition and their own underperformance.
This time, it will be different as they know they 12 players they’re facing are very much their equals.
Reputation and stature in the game overall has never been the decisive factor in Ryder Cups, it’s always been what happens between the ropes over the course of the three days. But reputation and stature suggests this will be close.
And that’s what I want from Bethpage in ’25. Guarantee me that, and then I’ll root for Europe to get the final point.
