Ryder Cup, golf’s greatest event?

by: Tony Starks

Okay, so here’s the setting. Thousands of screaming sports fans dressed in their team’s colors, screaming and chanting, cheering their squad on. The players belt out sounds of joy and pump their hands to sky motivating the crowd to get louder and louder.

No folks, we’re not talking about the NFL here. We’re talking about golf. You’ve got to be kidding me, right? I know that’s what you’re thinking. But it’s for these very reasons that the Ryder Cup trumps any other tournament to claim the title of golf’s greatest event.

In every other event PGA Tour players are trying to do everything they can to beat out the next guy, but the Ryder Cup gives them something else to play for other than themselves: their country, their teammates. What other opportunity do you have to see Tiger Woods cheer when Phil Mickelson makes a birdie? I mean, these guys are painted as being arch enemies. And it’s not that they hate each other, they just don’t like each other very much. You won’t catch these guys having a beer together, taking in a movie or eating lunch at Perkins.

Anyway, I digress. The Ryder Cup, golf’s greatest spectacle. Week in and week out those guys are out there grinding on the Tour. Playing for big bucks, big trophies and the respect of their peers and the golfing community. But not once can I recall one of those guys being brought to tears because they came in second, or didn’t win the tournament.

If you had the chance to see the finishing hole of the Ryder Cup where Hunter Mahan duffed a chip shot and dropped to his knees in agony before Graeme McDowell made the putt to seal victory for the Europeans, than you would know that the Ryder Cup is about more than golf. If you saw the closing ceremonies when the Europeans were presented with the Ryder Cup, and Mahan had to hide face cover up the fact that he was balling like a baby while Phil Mickelson tried to calm him down like a big brother would do an inconsolable child who just dropped his ice cream cone. Almost saying “Come’on, quit crying. We’re in public.” If you saw that, than you would be certain that there is no other golf event like the Ryder Cup.

That’s what separates the this event from others. The emotion, the passion, the rivalry and the camaraderie. That’s what makes it golf’s greatest event.

Can hardly wait another two years, when the Ryder Cup to returns to American soil. see you at Medinah team Europe! Make sure to keep our trophy nice and shiny for us.

Tony Starks graduated from Morehouse College in 2007 with a BA in English. He currently serves as the Editorial Assistant for PGA Magazine.