By Michael Arkush
I have a lot of opinions, as I’m sure you do, about what took place at Bethpage Black in late September. Inside the ropes. And, of course, outside the ropes.
Still, that will not be the purpose of this column. Instead, I will yield my space to six individuals, from both sides of the pond, who know a heck of a lot more about the Ryder Cup than I do, in good times and bad.
“Europe played incredible golf the first two days, and America played incredible golf the final day. But it pales in comparison to the crowd behavior. The integrity of the event has to be protected at all costs. I think (the PGA of America partnering with another entity) is something they may want to look at. I’m not sure they have the expertise within their own organization to handle what it’s become. It’s so big, you can’t assume you are covering all the stops when you’re doing the organization of it.”
“I think the American reaction to New York was to try to fire everyone up. They could have been stone-faced and just played their own game, and I think it would have been a totally different thing. You come on the first tee and the Europeans would walk on quietly and the Americans would be wrapped in the flag. You don’t want to get too up or too down. Going forward in the 2027 Ryder Cup, I would like to have the stoicism that the Europeans showed on our soil. They don’t need to try to rev anybody up. They need to play good golf and not worry about what the fans are doing.”
“I hate to say this, but I think the Presidents Cup takes away from our Ryder Cup players. When you’ve got two years to focus on something, it should make you better than one year … I hate to say, ‘Don’t sell beer,’ but if it comes to that, that’s what it’s got to be. It’s good that the game is growing, but some of the people who are coming to it aren’t the people who make our ancestors in the game proud. It’s not a good look.”
“Pretty disappointing on all counts: obviously, the way the American team played, the way the golf course was set up, the way the crowd became too much of an issue, and the lack of response to the crowd to try to quell that overenthusiasm. I hope the crowd in Ireland will be significantly more respectful of the players than what the folks in New York were. I hate to say it was a bunch of New Yorkers. It was people from everywhere.”
“We just can’t seem to crack the code the first couple of days of the competitions. The lead group that second day, I think it might have turned out a little better if we had played better ball instead of foursomes. It was heard in some corners that the golf course was not set up properly. I don’t believe that. Because the players must adjust to anything they see.”
“I got 20 to 25 emails and text messages from my American friends and associates who apologized for some of the people and how they behaved. I’ve never had that happen. The captains need to get together. The PGAs need to get together. And the media needs to help a little and bring it back slightly. It’s always more like a football event, not like a golf event, but there’s a way to do this like we had done for many years where it’s extremely competitive and emotional without being rude and over the top. It happened in 1991 with the War on the Shore. It’s not a war. It’s a golf tournament.”