The Ryder Cup
By
Martin Dempster
Scotland has an enviable record of staging top
golf tournaments. This year alone The Open, The Senior Open, the
Scottish Open, the Dunhill Links and the Johnnie Walker
Championship, which had the added bonus of doubling up as the final
qualifying event for the Ryder Cup, were among the tasty treats on
the menu. And, in 2011, the Women's British Open is heading to
Carnoustie for the first time.
It seems strange, then, to even think that the
vast majority of Scottish golf fans have missed out on something
over the past 37 years. But, when it comes to the Ryder Cup, they
have missed out. In fact, they've missed out on something very big.
Just ask the First Minister. Alex Salmond got his first taste of a
Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. "It's sensational and totally
different," he declared after soaking up the first-tee atmosphere.
"I was doing a comparison with The Open and this is bigger,
substantially bigger!"
Everything about a Ryder Cup is big. From the
triple-deck hospitality units to the media centre. From the
grandstand at the first tee to the TV compound. From the build up
to the analysis. It really is something special and, with the baton
for matches on this side of the Atlantic having now been handed
over to Scotland, the countdown is on in earnest to Gleneagles in
2014.
The Junior Ryder Cup, won by the Americans but
only just after a superb second-day performance by the Europeans,
was a tasty little appetiser, the presence of more than 2000 local
childen giving that event its biggest focus to date and the next
four years will tick past quickly. Being at Celtic Manor was
evidence of that as it was hard to believe that the same period of
time had passed since The K Club.
Before we know it Medinah, the venue in two
years' time, will have come and gone and all roads will lead to
picturesque Perthshire as the PGA Centenary Course earns the honour
of staging the biennial event for the first time since Muirfield in
1973. It was still Great Britain & Ireland facing the Americans
then and for anyone who was there on that occasion but haven't been
since be prepared for a shock in 2014.
The razmataz of a Ryder Cup is unique in golf. It
gives you goosebumps just thinking about it, the excitement and
anticipation growing by the minute as soon as you arrive at the
host venue. It's not just another golf tournament and, at Celtic
Manor, that became very apparent with the structure that had been
erected around three sides of the first tee. The stadium-style
stand housed 2000 fans and, boy, was the atmosphere in there
electric as each of the sessions started.
For whatever reason, the fans didn't come up with
nearly as many songs as those aat Valhalla two years earlier but a
chrorus of "There's only two Molinaris" certainly provided one of
those memorable Ryder Cup moments. So, too, did American captain
Corey Pavin when he missed out Stewart Cink, the 2009 Open
champion, when announcing his team at an opening ceremony where
those goosebumps tingled like mad.
As clips of former Ryder Cups are played on the
giant TV screens, your appetite is whetted for the action ahead
and, while there was no flyover in Wales, as had been the case at
Oakland Hills in 2004, there's no doubting the fact this unique
occasion in golf plays its part in getting people in the mood -
players and fans.
On this occasion, unfortunately, the golf itself
was a stop-start affair due to the weather but, on the Saturday
morning in particular, the roars echoing aroud the course every now
and again were another unique aspect of the Ryder Cup. Sure, you
hear plenty of roars at The Open when something exciting happens.
They're not Ryder Cup roars, though. The noise and intensity of a
Ryder Cup celebration are a notch or two up, as was illustrated,
for instance, when Rory McIlroy drained a huge putt for a
hole-winning birdie on the 17th.
2014 is going to offer a lot of Scottish golf
fans an opportunity to sample something special and, with Wales
having come and gone, it is now all systems go for
Gleneagles.
Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS
