Ryder Cup stalwarts want fan crowd
With rumors swirling that the Ryder Cup will be postponed until 2021, several players who have competed in the event in the past agreed that would be the best scenario if fans are unable to attend due to coronavirus.
Count Patrick Reed, AKA Captain America, among the players who can’t imagine playing the biennial competition without fans.
“You want to have that banter back and forth with the crowds. If you’re a home team, you basically want that 12th man,” Reed said, referencing football fans known as the 12th man. (Editor’s note: There actually are 12 men on each side in a Ryder Cup, so let’s call them the 13th man instead.)
“If you’re the away team, you’re expecting to kind of going into a hostile environment. Without fans, it just seems like it would be hard for everyone to kind of get up and show the emotion that you normally would whenever you have fans there.”
The Guardian published a report on Monday, saying that the Ryder Cup will be pushed back to 2021 because of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, a move that will trigger a series of other changes. Reed isn’t alone in believing that fans are critical to success of the Ryder Cup.
“If we can’t play without fans, I don’t think we should play this year,” Spain’s Jon Rahm said. “It’s the one event we don’t play for us, we play for the U.S. or we play for the continent of Europe and the countries we represent. We play for the fans, and the fans make what the Ryder Cup is. So I think it should be played with fans.
“Now, if they can make it maybe with a limited amount – still only four groups on the golf course – if you have 10,000 people instead of 40,000 you might be able to work it out, but I think it would be wiser to wait until 2021 just because also European players are not being able to play until later in the summer. They have those events in the UK and then some of the Rolex Series events that they’ve been able to organize, but a lot of those players have not been able to play and get back into competitive form, so I also don’t think it would be fair for a lot of them.”
American Brooks Koepka has been one of the most outspoken Americans in favor of delaying the Ryder Cup and reiterated his stance during his pre-tournament news conference ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship.
“I think that’s the right move,” Koepka said, noting that the Ryder Cup has a unique feel to it. “I know the fans think that it’s going to be the exact same, but it’s not. You’re not going to have people cheering on the first tee. It’s just not the same.
“You look at the soccer matches that are going on right now; the Premier League is back, everybody is back, it just doesn’t feel the exact same as when you’ve got the whole stadium chanting or the first tee everybody getting riled up or you know exactly what’s happening two groups ahead because people are screaming and hollering. It’s a different sporting event than what we’re used to, and I think the fans are a crucial part of that, and I think they should wait.”
American Bubba Watson echoed that sentiment, but in his own unique way.
“If they postpone it, that gives me a better chance of making the team, but at the same time I think for the spirit of the game, either way they roll with it, it’ll be worth it, but for fans’ sake, yes, I wish they would postpone it to get some fans there,” Watson said.
The Guardian’s story says an announcement will come next week about the biennial tournament, which is currently scheduled for Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, Sept. 25-27.
The report says that “work on the spectator build at Whistling Straits, ordinarily well under way by now, is not believed to have meaningfully started.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a player who supports playing the Cup without fans. American Jordan Spieth predicted that if players were asked to vote to have the Ryder Cup without fans or to be able to postpone for one year, even two if necessary, to allow for fans, he thinks they would favor postponement.
“Everybody would vote for postponement, especially the Americans being on home soil,” he said. “I would rather wait and play with fans than play without fans and force a Ryder Cup this year.”