The first tee scene for Sunday singles (Michael Reaves/PGA of America)
Champions, Cutmakers, (Point) Missers (the Keegan edition). And because they’re still missing the point, a PGA of America-heavy (Point) Missers II.
PGA Of America. Ryder Cups run by the organization cannot be considered a safe place for parents to bring their kids. That’s how far the members-only, for-profit/non-profit has fallen. The purported game growers and nurturers running the org predictably oversold, overpriced, overserved, and under-etiquette policed the 45th matches at Bethpage. This set up a toxic brew that should stain the organization’s leadership for at least a decade. Or, until players force the PGA of America to sell the thing to the PGA Tour, whose private equity partners might be just as cravenly squeezing every penny out of the event (so be careful what you wish for Tour fanboys!). An organization that has been integral to the junior golf explosion through its role in the Drive, Chip and Putt, PGA Junior League, and its thousands of members who introduce people to the game, allowed the Ryder Cup to be sullied by a refusal to see what could happen. And worse, they did not shift course when it became clear things were not going well.
The inevitable debacle started with the $750 ticket price for each day of the three sessions. (Yes, you got boiled dogs and Grandma’s Cookies softer than the greens as long as you didn’t visit between sessions when they ran out of everything.), The PGA of America’s cynical Chief Commercial Officer and Long Island native, Jeff Price, defended the price and claimed a sell-out occurred within 48 hours. Yet for around $1250 each, a fan could buy a maximum of six venue-verified tickets on official partner SeatGeek’s site, even when the public sale max was only four. (Note to PGA: try to be more subtle next time.) So yes, it means these were batches of PGA of America tickets marked up to squeeze more money out of the people’s course. Governor Kathy Hochul refused to get involved in the price-gauging even though it’s a state-owned property. She was booed mercilessly at the opening ceremony. Things seemed even shadier when we found out her husband used to work for the consulting company that helped determine the obnoxious prices. Despite the PGA-Seatgeek partnership, prices dropped below face value for Saturday action and plummeted on Sunday. But the fees remained appallingly high.
The PGA of America then tried to place 55,000 people per day on a footprint that would have been straining at 35,000 because of the two-lane roads in and out of Bethpage. Throw in the Ryder Cup’s limited amount of action taking place at one time, and fans realized they’d been duped. Their team started losing. It was hot. As a result, horrible things were said, and spectators tried to interfere with the outcome.
Here is a statement from the PGA of America reminding fans that this is a goodwill exhibition and how derogatory comments or efforts to disrupt play would result in ejections or even arrests, thanks to a strict no-tolerance policy:
After things continued to go awry, the PGA’s statement reminded people that ejection from the property was the policy for any fan who gets out of line:
Showing great concern for the fan arrival issues, here is what the PGA of America said about the difficulty of arriving at Bethpage, getting around the course, and departing the property:
After a fan threw a can that almost hit Rory McIlroy’s wife Erica (an American and former PGA employee), here was the PGA of America’s apology on Saturday night:
Idiotic remarks from PGA President Don Rea—oh, we’ll get to him in a moment—the organization eventually wheeled out CEO Derek Sprague to unimpressively answer questions on an uneven Wednesday Golf Channel appearance. That one did not really land with the eighteen people who saw it, so he spoke to The Athletic’s Brody Miller and Sprague stepped up the condemnation while revealing he’d written an apology email to the McIlroys.
The organization also selected a Captain who grew up a Boston sports fan. Turns out, he was more than moronic when it came to understanding the values of the Ryder Cup. That Bradley did not do more to discourage misbehavior should forever stain his one-and-done Captaincy. At least former Captain Tom Watson apologized for the fan behavior. Traveling to Europe might also be a bad idea for Bradley after he suggested that Rome’s crowds were “violent” (maybe he meant the short-lived but fantastic HBO show?). The current PGA of America president echoed Bradley’s words. It was as if the two met in Don Rea’s presidential suite to sync up their tone-deaf responses that was completely predictable due to the way the PGA of America approached the event: as a profit center above all else.
President Don Rea at the Member Reception (Scott Taetsch/PGA of America)
Don Rea. The game has dealt with carnival barkers and military grade All-World shmendricks before. But Rea may be unlike anything golf has ever seen. The current volunteer leader of the PGA of America desperately wanted to be hired as the CEO (and still does, so wear that body armor to meetings, Derek!). Rea has been building toward an even more revealing week than his bizarro PGA Championship shenanigans in May. At the Ryder Cup and following the event, he exceeded all expectations, and as respectable publications have already written, he should resign.
On Sunday afternoon of the Ryder Cup, Rea spoke to BBC Northern Ireland’s Stephen Watson and was asked about the fan behavior. You can torture yourself watching it here. Each of these batty quotes deserves special attention.
“Well, you’ve 50,000 people here that are really excited and, heck, you could go to a youth soccer game and get some people who say the wrong things.”
“When there are American players who have to control the crowds that distracts them from playing.”
“It happened when we were in Rome on the other side.”
“Things like that are going to happen and I don’t know what was said. But all I know is golf the engine of good.”
Rea then played a silly part in the closing ceremony. PGA officers labor under the delusion that anyone wants to hear from them, and he had one job: to congratulate the winning team. While many were offended by his suggestion that Europe merely “retained” the cup, it is technically accurate and has been said many times before when a team wins the matches. (It was The Quad’s headline.) But Rea’s was laced with condescension:
“Me and Rosie [Justin Rose] looked at each other thinking the congratulations didn’t feel very heartfelt,” said Matthew Fitzpatrick, speaking at the Alfred Dunhill Links.
Instead of just shutting up and going back to the world-renowned Augusta Ranch to work with his many nationally ranked, elite up-and-coming talents who he’s protecting in his fight against golf distance rule changes, Rea took to LinkedIn to repost a “sermon” he’d given some time ago. And this:
That’s right, the PGA of America president is insinuating that his critics are the devil. Hey, great news, manufacturers! Rea’s your last hope in halting the golf distance rule changes. Lucky you.
