‘If you dress up like a clown, you will be called a clown’
Guardians of the Cup fans’ group are just a bit of fun, writes spokesman Teddy Shuttleworth
Our group is made of huge, incurable golf fans who met at university and decided to do our bit for Team Europe. The first time we went to the Ryder Cup together was at the K Club in 2006.
You sit on the first tee, and there is this extraordinary tension and nervous excitement. One of our guys made up a one-liner on the spot and shouted aloud and you could sense this immediate flood of energy coming out. The reception was great and someone in the crowd shouted “sing us another” so it built very organically like that.
Then the players chime in, asking “Where’s my song?” Justin Rose has always been supersupportive, his was one of the first songs we wrote to Spandau Ballet’s Gold. He picked up on the words and we would catch him humming it to himself on the tee which is amazing. Before you know it, you are writing a song for everyone.
At the event itself, criticism of us does not chime at all. Negativity from fans around us has never been an issue. But we are on Twitter and you see bits and pieces of criticism there. Obviously, you would prefer it was not that way but, to be fair, we are low-hanging fruit – if you dress up like a clown, someone is going to call you a clown. Still, most people just like to join in with the songs.
The whole point of doing the singing in the first place is to get everyone together and giving the team a huge reception when they come on the tee, so the more of us involved the better.
Possibly some of our songs can be a bit too convoluted and difficult to learn, and then it is harder for people to join in. That is the tweak we are making this year. We are saving the individual player songs for the 19th hole – the bar – and will take the great big sing-a-long anthems, the “ole ole ole” stuff to the tee so that every European can join in to create a great big roar for the players.
It is also worth saying that we try to get people to see the songs before the event itself. We set up a website and put the songs up there. People send in their own songs which is brilliant.
It is a nice way to try to pull everyone together and overwhelmingly positive for the best part – we will take the other stuff on the chin.