Bjorn backing a fan-free Cup
THOMAS BJORN says he would support a fan-free Ryder Cup this September because there is no guarantee crowds will even be allowed next year.
American captain Steve Stricker claimed this week it would be a ‘crime’ to play this year’s event in his home state of Wisconsin with no spectators. Rory McIlroy is also among those against it.
But while Europe’s 2018 Ryder Cup-winning captain Bjorn admits a behind-closed-doors event would be ‘painful’, he thinks postponing could cause as many problems as it solves, especially if coronavirus has still not cleared.
‘It’s easy to just stand on the sidelines and say, “We don’t want to play if there are no fans”, but even if you postpone it until 2021, we don’t know where we are going to be. We are all talking almost like on December 31, this whole thing is going to come to a stop and we can start a new year, everything is OK, but we don’t know that for a fact.
‘We are crossing our fingers, we are putting a lot of belief in very clever people that they can come up with something and we can come through this, with a vaccine or a cure.
‘But we don’t know if that is going to happen so we might have to live through 2021 with the same restrictions. Just to postpone an event to next year might not solve your problems.’
Bjorn also cites the issues that moving the Ryder Cup back 12 months would have on golf’s finances.
‘Moving a sporting event has a huge impact on the ecosystem around an event and a sport, there are a lot people that are affected,’ admits the Dane, who will play in the Paddy Power Golf Shootout today, a pro-am tournament at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire.
‘You move the Ryder Cup, then it has an effect on the Solheim
Cup, it has an effect on the Presidents Cup. These events clash very much, especially in a TV sense.
‘I totally understand Steve Stricker’s point of view. There is also an emotional side for him, he wants to have that interaction with his home fans, that is a big thing to take away from him.
‘I really like how the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe have gone about this, they are taking their time, seeing how it develops and making a decision at the last possible minute.’
A decision will be made by the end of this month, while the European Tour will start behind closed doors on July 22, with the British Masters starting the six-week ‘UK Swing’.
European Tour chief Keith Pelley last week said he wanted players and caddies to wear television microphones to enhance coverage of the upcoming tournaments while fans could not attend.
And Bjorn expects player mics to become a permanent fixture in the future, as long as golfers can control their language.
‘If there are things that could enhance the value of the product we are trying to deliver, these are probably the right times to try and test it and see how it works,’ he admitted.
‘To have that interaction between player and caddie and the conversation that goes on between players in between shots, I think people will like to hear those conversations.’
M BJORN is playing in the Paddy Power Golf Shootout, from midday today on Paddy Power’s YouTube channel.