Ryder Cup is king – beware cheap imitations
Presidents Cup is further proof that iconic events cannot be created in a marketing department, says James Corrigan
It is an exhibition, and there is no more damning description in team sport
If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery then the Ryder Cup must stand alone as the event with the reddest face. Every pursuit worthy of its bottom line has tried an impersonation.
The Laver Cup in tennis was the latest and, as it happens, it was not that unconvincing. But if it intends to be the on-court equivalent of the biennial dust-up, then it should know the length of queue it is joining.
Horse racing has tried with the Shergar Cup, skiing has tried with the Skiers Cup, swimming has tried with the Duel in the Pool, snooker/pool tried with the Mosconi Cup, while triathlon is trying with the Collins Cup and athletics is due to stage its own Europe v US clash in 2019.
Who knows, one of these or more might become successful in tapping into the passion and tension created by the Ryder Cup. But I very much doubt it. Because even golf itself struggles to copy its own greatest invention. The Presidents Cup begins today at the Liberty National Golf Club, just across the New York harbour from the Statue of Liberty, herself copying Sam Torrance’s match-winning pose from the Belfry in 1985.
Running in the odd-numbered years, the match between the US and the International team (AKA the rest of the world except Europe) was set up in the 1990s by the PGA Tour in its enduring desperation to create a revenue stream which it so painfully misses out on because of the Ryder Cup being controlled Stateside by the PGA of America.
Well, here we are, three decades on – which almost amounts to historic in US sport – and it is an equal to the Ryder Cup only in the same way the Checkatrade Trophy is on a par with the Champions League. In short, nobody outside cares and, all too often, neither do those inside.
Of course, the protagonists will claim it does mean everything, but the fact the US pros often say that the Presidents Cup is more “fun” than the Ryder Cup tells its own story. In the latter, rookies have been sick on the way to the first tee, while veterans have privately confessed to wishing their courtesy car suffered a non-lifethreatening crash on the way to the course. That simply does not happen when the Internationals are the opposition. It is an exhibition, nothing more, and there is no more damning description in team sport.
It has not helped that it has been so onesided, the Americans having lost just once in 11 matches. But if Nick Price’s Internationals do win on Sunday, would that suddenly raise its stature? Probably not.
The Ryder Cup is the Ryder Cup because it did not emerge from any marketing department, but because it came to be from a quite perfect and beautiful storm.
It was dead on its spikes in the Seventies when the US ripped through Great Britain and Ireland without mercy. And even when GB & I became Europe in 1979, it still limped on. It was only the Seve Ballesteros effect, with all the gamesmanship and “edge” which came with it, that applied the electrodes to its heart.
Seve, that veritable walking tempest, showed that the mighty Americans could be beaten and when the mighty American fans could not handle being beaten, the contest exploded. And on it goes with the niggle building on the niggle, the sentiments and resentments being passed down the generations.
Nothing can begin to emulate it. It is the unmatchable match, the most unique three days on the sporting calendar. Beware cheap imitations, no matter how much they cost.