Friday, September 28, 2018

Ryder Cup Is A Thrilling Sporting Event


Ryder Cup is one of the most thrilling events in golf. I’ve been fortunate to attend the U.S. played matches since 1987, when Europe won for the first time in the U.S.. The change from 1987 to now is astonishing. 

In 1985, almost nobody in golf cared about Ryder Cup except the players on the teams. The reason I know this is that at the PGA Championship in 1985, I attended a press conference that announced the site of the 1991 matches, which at the time were to be PGA West in La Quinta, CA.  I worked for the developer. 

About a dozen people were in the room.  The late Bob Green of the Associated Press, PGA of America officers, the PGA Executive Director, the late Joe Walser, Jr. ( head of the PGA West project for the developer), the late Jim Warters, who was once an editor of PGA Magazine, among other duties at the PGA, a couple additional PGA staffers and me.  That was it.  There was no media interest whatsoever in future Ryder Cup.   

Since my job was golf media relations at the time, I realized I had an uphill battle on this one. 

Now a lot of things happened between the morning of that announcement and 1991 regarding Ryder Cup.  In the fall of 1985, when that year’s Ryder Cup was played in Europe, the European team won. It was a big deal for them, but it created not a ripple here.  Then in 1987, when the Ryder Cup was played at Muirfield Village, the European team won in the U.S. for the first time, and all of a sudden, a few people started noticing.  The U.S. and Europe tied in points in 1989, which meant that Europe got to keep the trophy for another two years.  Then PGA of America appointed Dave Stockton as captain for the 1991 matches.  

In addition, sometime between the 1988 PGA, which was held at Oak Tree GC, another property owned at the time by this same developer, and 1990, the PGA wanted to redo the contract for the Ryder Cup.  They were also concerned about having an event in the desert in September, when it was not impossible for temperatures to be 100 degrees and the TV window back to Europe from the west coast.  And there were some monetary concerns deep in the contract details. 

The arrangement they worked out moved the Ryder Cup to an as yet unbuilt golf course in South Carolina. People thought it was crazy to do that. But it was Pete Dye who would be building the course, and the developer had a long-standing relationship with the PGA of America.  They all trusted that the project could be completed in time for the event. It was, despite hurricane Hugo.

However, when Golf Magazine dubbed the 1991 Ryder Cup the War by the Shore, and it became pandemonium at Ryder Cup.  That has continued ever since.      

  




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