In 2014, at Gleneagles, Hank Gola, then covering the Ryder Cup for the New York Daily News, asked Phil Mickelson a question whose answer led the PGA of America to re-examine its entire approach to the event. Having lost for the third straight time since its 2008 at Valhalla, the American players squirmed in their seats as Mickelson explained what went right then and what had gone wrong since. Mickelson’s controversial rebuke of Tom Watson’s captaincy struck home, however, and soon a “task force” was put together to develop another way forward.
The following Ryder Cup, won by the United States at Hazeltine, is among a baker’s dozen that Gola selected as the most consequential and compelling since Samuel Ryder got the whole thing started in 1927. His book, Ryder Cup Rivals, released just before this year’s renewal of the competition at Bethpage, takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the intrigue, drama, and gamesmanship that have boiled to the surface in every Ryder Cup played.
With a foreword by Dan Hicks of NBC Sports, Ryder Cup Rivals highlights Walter Hagen and his gamesmanship; Dai Reese and Britain’s 1957 upset; Jack Nicklaus, Tony Jacklin and “The Concession”; Seve Ballesteros and the arrival of the Europeans; Bernhard Langer’s agony at the “War at the Shore”; and Paul Azinger’s stunning captaincy at Valhalla.
Might Bethpage top them all?