Whooping and hollering – welcome back
AND to think some people considered holding a Ryder Cup without fans.
That was the notion discussed during the pandemic, when Covid-19 came along and threatened to see one of the greatest shows on turf take place in Wisconsin without the people who have made it so magical.
But as the sun rose along the banks of Lake Michigan, it shone a light on just how much this iconic sporting event relies on those so privileged to be there to contribute so much.
The first tee was like a vista akin to an Uncle Sam poster. A sea of red, white and blue. The place was rocking to an version of the Star Spangled Banner along with deafening whooping and hollering. Welcome back.
Spanish duo Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia were first to feel the full force of the blast from the home crowd.
Garcia hit the opening tee shot. He’d been here before, of course, but still looked relieved to have got his drive airborne, even if did finish in one of Whistling Straits’s 1,000 bunkers.
Justin Thomas followed for the
Greatest
But it wasn’t long before the bedlam all started again. This is one of sport’s greatest spectacles, a stage for golfing gladiators.
“Go out and enjoy it, these are the best days of your lives,” rival skipper Padriag Harrington had told his European stars in a rousing final speech to them the night before.
There’s no fun in being jeered by drunken men in Stars &
Stripes onesies, but it’s now part of the competition’s DNA. The challenge makes men of some and mincemeat of others.
When the thousands gathered around the first tee saw on the big screens Thomas’s birdie putt miss up ahead on the opening green, there were gasps of shock. “What the hell was that?” asked one home fan.
This is golf’s most brutal and unforgiving environment.
There is no place to hide.