Greatest show in world sport
PEOPLE say the World Cup and the Olympic Games are the biggest showpiece occasions in sport, but I don’t think either is a patch on the Ryder Cup.
The three days of competition encapsulate everything that is good about sport. The way it builds in excitement over the first two days and climaxes with the dramatic 12 singles matches, the formula is perfect.
Nothing can touch it for thrills and spills. The Olympics last for a couple of weeks, the World Cup even longer, and by the end of it all, it’s a bit of a yawn. There’s no time for yawning at the Ryder Cup.
The pressure, the sportsmanship and the emotion it creates are unparalleled.
Everything that’s good about sport is in evidence and that’s why so many corporations queue up to sponsor the thing. It’s clean, it’s wholesome and it also next one gets even better. Look at the way it finished yesterday. The overall outcome was already known and just when you thought the drama was over, Alex Noren goes and holes a ridiculous 30ft birdie putt right at the very end.
There were some fine playing achievements, with Sergio Garcia breaking the all-time points record and Francesco Molinari becoming the first European to score a maximum five points out of five.
I was more than a tad concerned when they decided to take the Ryder Cup to France because the country doesn’t really have much of a golfing heritage.
I was also concerned about security issues, and about the troubles we’ve had in Europe on that score in recent years, but there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
I can’t think of anywhere I’ve ever been at a Ryder Cup where the organisation and the venue was better. They had something like 56,000 people out there watching every day – that’s almost as many people as live in Scunthorpe, where I was born.
I wouldn’t mind if Le Golf National became the permanent host course every time the Ryder Cup is played in Europe. There was a sea of people out there each day but every fan was able to find a vantage point.
That massive grandstand took the event to another level altogether as a spectacle.
I liked the course from a playing point of view too. There’s only one way to perform well on it and that’s by keeping your ball in the fairway and avoiding the rough. It was a proper examination of golf and Thomas Bjorn’s triumphant Europe team passed the test with flying colours.
Tony Jacklin CBE is one of golf’s most acclaimed after-dinner speakers and hosts a number of charity golfing events in partnership with Champions (UK) plc.
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