Hazeltine ‘farm’ to become field of dreams

Cup is being held in the wilds of the Midwest, rather than at some glorious coastal outpost in California.

The weather and the scenery would be infinitely more telegenic but an eight-hour time difference would make for impossibly late viewing for a European audience.

So, Minnesota in September it is, and it would seem the setting has become a touch more sophisticated over the past 46 years. The 16th, drastically remodelled from a nondescript par three into a lusciously picturesque par four, was recently voted one of the world’s 1 001 holes to play before you die.

The awarding of the Ryder Cup is just the type of grand accolade that its founders envisaged. While the task of securing membership of Hazeltine is many degrees less taxing than at Augusta, say, or Cypress Point, prospective recruits are still judged on how strongly they agree with the vision to make the club “suitable for the conduct of national championships“. This mission has been discharged with emphatic success.

Hazeltine is the kind of sprawling, corporate-friendly resort that the most demanding hosts adore, with enough space on its grounds to accommodate car parks the size of Luxembourg.

While the United States Golf Association has been reluctant to take the US Open back here, in view of Hill’s excoriation, the US/PGA has taken place twice on these verdant acres since 2002.

It is, as befitting a host team built around the prodigious power of Dustin Johnson, a bomber’s paradise. Measuring 7 628 yards (6 975m), it is the second longest course ever to stage the Ryder Cup. Plus, there is red everywhere, with scarlet tarpaulin covering every grandstand and spectator footbridge. Clearly, the Americans have taken their cue from Europe’s rhapsody in blue at Gleneagles two years ago to put on their own display of colour-coded partisanship.

Davis Love III, understated US captain he might be, intends to keep ratcheting up the volume. “A huge part of home-field advantage is the fans,” he said. –