Wow, wow, wow! What a week, what a Ryder Cup! Awash with emotion, fatigue, relief and joy, Europe annihilated, yes, annihilated the touted best-ever American Ryder Cup team to visit this continent. And Patricia and I can beat our chests (though not quite as hard as Ian Poulter) and say proudly, “We were there!”
Having enjoyed a busy summer covering all the majors and going back and forward to America I have to confess the Ryder Cup sort of crept up on me and, knowing I was having a work-free tournament, I hadn’t really paid that much attention to the build-up – until Thomas Bjorn announced his picks. Then I sat up and paid attention. I walked crossly into the house and announced to my husband that, “Thomas Bjorn has just lost us the Ryder Cup. Sergio can’t hit a barn door, Henrik has carried a long-term elbow injury and Casey and Poulter played well at the start of the year but have done nothing since. How about picking players who are actually playing well? Plus they’re all getting on a bit!”
It was all crystal clear, wasn’t it? We were going to get whopped. Ah well, at least we’d have a pleasant few days in Paris with no anxious nail-biting, because, well, it wasn’t going to be close, was it? And in the end, it wasn’t! Thomas’s picks delivered a whopping 9.5 points and US captain Jim Furyk’s a mere 2 points, both courtesy of his final pick, the multi-talented Tony Finau. Shows you what I know!
A wonderful setting for the closing holes, bathed in sunshine all week.
Europe combined to make the perfect team, the whole being so so much more than the sum of the individual parts. That’s the bit the Americans don’t quite get. At the top level in team golf nowadays you cannot afford to have any of the undercurrents of blame and discontent rumbling through the team. The dissolution of the hitherto successful partnership of Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth was obviously not handled as well as it could have been by Furyk because Reed was still aggrieved by it at the end of the week. And what on earth was Reed’s wife thinking of – getting involved in twitter conversations re the split? Heaven forbid that that would ever happen on a European side.
The sights and sounds of a Ryder Cup are extraordinary. We see players in their work place in a way we never normally see them. Quiet, understated, unflappable folk like Francesco Molinari turn into magnums of shaken champagne erupting into unconfined joy at the acquisition of another precious point. When he gets time to look back at the TV pictures he’ll wonder was that really him? How fitting that the honour of clinching the Cup and becoming the first European player to win five points out of five should fall to Molinari. His fellow Italians must be rubbing their hands in delighted expectation of hosting the next home match in 2022.
It’s not just the players that are different, the crowds are too. It’s not uncommon to see all manner of fancy dress and always something to bring a smile to your face.
Birdies of a different sort on show.
Not all fans dressed in red were behind the US.
Finally, the behaviour of these crowds is also different and, to be honest, it is something I struggled with a little bit. At one point when an American shot found water to loud European cheers, Patricia turned to me and said, “Dad wouldn’t like that.” And no, he most certainly wouldn’t. We were definitely brought up not to celebrate an opponent’s mistake or misfortune and to be respectful and fair at all times. So, why was I enjoying it so much and, whisper it quietly, even doing my own share of cheering?
Patricia felt it was because it was akin to cheering when your opposing footie team missed a penalty. It is in a way, but I don’t like any comparison to football. Claude Harmon summed it up perfectly for me. The Ryder Cup is no longer simply a great golf event, it is one of the world’s greatest sporting events and as such, there are many many sports fans present who are not necessarily golfers. The crowd was so involved in the matches and so partisan and that all contributed to a stunning atmosphere and one that every player on each side relished. Not once did I hear an unkind remark aimed at any of the opposing players (unlike two years ago in Hazeltine), and not once was there anything but respectful silence when the Americans were playing.
Two years ago there was an unpalatable edge to a section of the crowd’s behaviour because alcohol was on sale from 7am when the gates opened. This small but vocal number of boozed-up fans were a disgrace and an embarrassment to our gracious hosts. There was absolutely none of that in Paris. So, sorry Dad, I am OK with the cheering of the US water-bound shots and their missed putts. The involvement of the fans is part of the whole experience of the current-day Ryder Cup as long as it is good natured and no American player had any criticism to make. When Patrick Reed holed the winning putt in his singles match he turned to the crowd and held his finger to his lips, returning the shushing gestures he had received from them as he walked up onto the green. He then dropped his club on the ground and applauded the galleries and the part they had played in supporting their team. It was a nice moment.
So, well done Thomas Bjorn and the European team. The captain’s picks were pivotal. Sure, I knew all along we’d win!!
Tired but happy! Our boys did it!
Brilliant assessment and read, just what all golfers were thinking …. and saying here!,
Thanks Gill.
Really nice rendition of this Ryder Cup. All I can say is “Congratulations Team Europe!”
Thanks Janis. As you know it is SO difficult to win away from home – and we expect your boys to come back fighting at Whistling Straits.
Thanks Maureen, a good read as always, couple of points.
Im still with your Dad on the cheering of bad shots from USA players
Bit harsh maybe on Reed’s wife as we have had Danny Willets brother causing mayhem on our side a couple of years ago?
Nice that you understood and reported the gesture from Reed properly, it was widely misread by many of the golfing public apparently?
Regards
Thanks, Paul. I cannot argue with you over your dislike of cheering bad shots of the opposition because it really still is entrenched in my DNA. You are quite right about Danny Willet’s brother – I had forgotten about him. I suppose the only difference was he was criticising (or in his mind poking fun at) the American fan. It wasn’t an internal disagreement within the European camp. Finally, Patrick Reed’s gesture – I haven’t seen it yet on TV but I was wondering if the director only cut to that match when Patrick Reed was seen to be shushing the crowd? If the earlier exchange of the crowd teasing Reed was missed by the cameras then the whole incident has the appearance of something else. I suspect that that is what Butch Harmon saw and was commentating on. And then, lots of the print media who are not actually physically out at that hole at the time, will pick up their info from TV. Easy to see how it was misrepresented, I think. Thanks for reading our little blog – we appreciate your comments.
Hi Maureen,
A great description of probably what all golf fans were thinking, starting from the Captain’s picks. I was terrified that the heroes of yesteryear would lose their lustre and with Thomas Bjorn would go down as ‘has-beens’. But the energy and talent they injected was incredible.
I wasn’t there in person – being vertically challenged, I get a better view from the sofa LOL. But it was a fantastic achievement.
Agree that ALL good golf shots should be applauded and while we have all sad ‘hard lines’ to an opponent while secretly screaming ‘YES!’, openly delighting in an opponent’s bad luck is not nice – but hey, this is the Ryder Cup and almost anything goes.