It was a dozen years ago that the PGA of America announced the Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course as host of the 2024 Ryder Cup, which got dominoed back a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more than a decade, golf fans have salivated over the likelihood Bethpage, an hour鈥檚 drive from New York City, will bring unprecedented chaos to the biennial matches between the United States and Europe. They remember impatient locals hurling insults at Sergio Garcia at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, when the in-contention Spaniard鈥檚 pre-shot routine included more waggles than a happy dog鈥檚 tail. That was just one European threatening an American triumph. This time, it鈥檚 12.
It鈥檚 a sexy storyline that picked up steam following the U.S.‘s humiliating loss two years ago in Rome. There, a testy 18th-green exchange between Rory McIlroy and Joe LaCava, the grandstanding caddy for Patrick Cantlay, spilled over to the parking lot where a still-seething McIlroy spewed venom at nice guy Jim (Bones) MacKay, then caddying for Justin Thomas.
Take the loudest and rowdiest event in golf. Put it on a public golf course in New York notorious for its proud and raucous crowds. Now fill i…
Take the loudest and rowdiest event in golf. Put it on a public golf course in New York notorious for its proud and raucous crowds. Now fill i…
鈥淗e was just the first American I saw after I got out of the locker room, so he was the one who took the brunt of it,鈥 McIlroy explained during his team鈥檚 winning press conference. 鈥淗e was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.鈥
McIlroy may have been apologetic to MacKay afterward, but you can bet a lot of American supporters watching that melee were thinking the same thing: Wait until we get these guys to Bethpage.
That time has arrived and the talk between the teams hasn鈥檛 exactly been benevolent. Bryson DeChambeau, irked that McIlroy didn鈥檛 talk to him during their final-round pairing at this year鈥檚 Masters, said he鈥檒l be chirping in McIlroy鈥檚 ear this week. McIlroy clapped back, saying the only way DeChambeau gets attention is by dropping his name or that of Scottie Scheffler. (Never mind DeChambeau鈥檚 2.4 million YouTube subscribers.) Even the gentlemanly Justin Rose provided some bulletin-board material for the U.S. players when he called their camaraderie into question.
鈥淚 think the Americans have gotten a little bit聽鈥 they think being a great team is about being best mates,鈥 Rose said in a Sky Sports interview. 鈥淚 really don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 what being a great team is. Being a great team is having a kind of a real good theme and having an identity that has come from players before you, and you all buy into that vision.
鈥淚 think America has tried too hard to become a team, whereas Europe is a bit more natural and organic, and I think it comes from deeper roots in a way.鈥
You can bet that didn鈥檛 sit well with Keegan Bradley, the passionate U.S. captain who has concentrated his leadership to this point on transforming 12 individuals into an allied force. This is a guy who hasn鈥檛 yet opened his suitcase from the 2012 Ryder Cup that the U.S. team blew on home soil and a guy who got in the grill of Miguel 脕ngel Jim茅nez over a ruling at the 2015 WGC Match Play Championship.
- Brian Mahoney The Associated Press
It鈥檚 all fodder for fireworks in New York, where boorish behaviour seems inevitable. The worry is that such bedlam will overshadow the on-course action. As much as some fans view the Ryder Cup as the sport鈥檚 one week of hostility, and would revel in some disrespect, the event is at its most glorious when the golf is great, when the matches are intense but civil, and when the competition is close, which it hasn鈥檛 been since 2012.
It was that year when we saw the Ryder Cup at its best. In a crucial spot in the Sunday singles lineup, and with his team trailing by four points to start the day, Rose played inspired golf and ultimately chased down Phil Mickelson with birdies on the final two holes to secure a much-needed point that helped the Euros to a monumental comeback.
Rose did so in spite of obnoxious heckles from the crowd, which were ultimately halted when his opponent called in security. And it was Mickelson who applauded Rose after the Englishman drained a must-make 50-footer on the penultimate hole. Mickelson was crushed, but he respected and admired Rose鈥檚 guts.
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) 鈥 The Americans have become an easy target for Europe at this Ryder Cup, and it has nothing to do with how they have be…
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) 鈥 The Americans have become an easy target for Europe at this Ryder Cup, and it has nothing to do with how they have be…
Four years later, McIlroy engaged in a memorable Sunday singles match with Patrick Reed at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Both men were awesome (on the front nine) and had the crowds crazy with their reactions upon holing putts. But just as things were teetering on the edge of total mayhem, with Reed鈥檚 shushing celebration after McIlroy鈥檚 鈥淚 can鈥檛 hear you鈥 roar on the eighth green, the two men caught themselves and fist-bumped before heading to the ninth tee.
That鈥檚 what makes the Ryder Cup such terrific theatre. Two dozen competitors pouring their heart and soul into every shot for country or continent but still maintaining the decorum that separates golf from other sports. McIlroy once caught flak for calling the Ryder Cup an 鈥渆xhibition.鈥 Technically it is just that, but it can yield the very best golf entertainment there is. Here鈥檚 hoping this Ryder Cup will be remembered for amazing play and not for poor behaviour on display.
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