"There are golfing nerves, major championship nerves, and then there are Ryder Cup nerves." - Bobby Jones
"The nerves you feel at the Ryder Cup are nothing like you feel anywhere else in golf. I’ve won the U.S. Open, and it felt like a walk in the park compared to the Ryder Cup." - Corey Pavin
“I couldn’t see the golf ball. I was just so nervous, I couldn’t even see it.” -- Padraig Harrington, on the opening shot of his Ryder Cup debut
"Anybody who doesn’t feel his legs trembling must be a dead man." - Jose Maria Olazabal
There are grander events in sports. (The Olympics.) There are events far bigger. (The World Cup and Super Bowl.) There are tournaments that better define the legacy of the golfer (The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and, I guess, the PGA Championship.) But for drama, stress, passion and pride compacted into three tense days and five nerve-wracking rounds, nothing beats the Ryder Cup, which begins Friday at Hazeltine, with the U.S. looking to snap out of a skid that's seen it lose six of the past seven competitions.
What makes the Ryder Cup so great? The nationalistic passion, for one. The competition started as U.S. vs. the U.K. but by the end of the 1970s, it was hardly a tournament anymore, as the Americans had won 19 of the 22 competitions, including 10 straight by ever-increasing margins. So, at that time, it became a battle between the States and all of Europe. After the Americans won those first three tournaments, the Euros have won 11 of 15 dating back to 1985. Domination.
That hasn't stopped the fervor though. In a sport that's supposed to be genteel and gentlemanly, the crowd at the Ryder Cup can sound like they're watching a Raiders game. This week, lipped-out putts by Europeans are cheered like holes-in-one and any American success leads to a roar of the crowd that can be heard throughout the property. Players charge the green when their guy makes a big putt to win a crucial hole. The scoreboard watching is never better. It's just an entirely different experience from the other 11.5 months of the season. There's nothing like it in golf.
For an individual sport, golf is actually more exciting in a team format. In straight stroke play, the strategy is minimal. Players go out, ignore the field and try to post their best number. Sometimes they'll have to decide whether to go for a green in two or lay-up. Another time it's driver or play it safe off the tee. Closer to the green, you might have to decide whether to fire at a pin or hit it safely on the dance floor for a two-putt par. And yes, leaderboard-watching in the final holes can affect some of those decisions but, by and large, it's your score versus the field.
At the Ryder Cup, the first two days and 16 matches are played in team twosomes with two different formats. In fourball, the two Americans face the two Euros and everybody plays their own ball for the entire round. It's like match play, with the lowest score for the Americans going against the lowest score for the Euros. If they tie, it's a split. If one side has a lower best score, they win the hole. The other format - foursomes - is better known as alternate shot. One American and one Euro hit from the tee, while their partner hits the approach and so on. The tee shot hitters switch every hole. And then, on Sunday, every American and every European face off in head-to-head matches. A total of 28 points (16 from the first two days, 12 from the final day) are up for grabs and in the case of a tie, the Cup stays with the reigning champion, Europe.
The formats - four American teams vs. four European teams in four different rounds on Friday and Saturday - leave so much room for strategy, second-guessing and mind games. Who starts? Who sits out? (Four player per team sit out per team round.) Does American captain Davis Love III pair Jordan Spieth with 2014 dynamo Patrick Reed on the opening days? (It seems like a winning combination but is it a "waste" of two top players to go together?) Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker were paired together all four rounds at Gleneagles in 2014, going 0-1-3. Is that steadiness good enough or do you put Phil Mickelson in there? And when do you rest Mickelson who, at 46, probably shouldn't be playing five rounds in three days. There's so much to think about and second-guess and then, on Sunday, the captain of the losing team might as well lay down in front of the Port Authority given how many buses he'll be thrown under even though, when the final putt falls on Sunday evening, the tournament is decided on the course, not in the matchups.
The highs and lows of the Ryder Cup are tremendous. Matches turn on a dime. Let's say a match is all-square on the 16th hole and Team USA is looking at a 20-foot birdie putt while the Europeans are off the green, 60 feet from the hole, chipping for par. You can't help but look ahead and do the math: This is an easy win for the Americans, they'll go up by one hole with two to play and it's now their match to lose. Then Europe chips in and, what had been an easy American two-putt from 20 feet is suddenly a knee-knocker that might as well be sitting 100 feet away from the hole. Given the adrenaline, the putt is crushed five feet beyond the cup. Suddenly, there's a pressure-packed putt that will either halve the hole or lose it, just seconds after an easy victory was basically assumed. This isn't a once-in-a-Ryder-Cup situation; something like this happens in every match, usually multiple times.
Okay, so the golf is great, the atmosphere is fun, but at the end of the day, this is a golf tournament between the United States and Europe, two entities that aren't really rivals unless you're playing a game of Risk. How do you get up for beating a team compromised of guys from Northern Ireland, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden that there's no natural rivalry with?
Ask the 1983 team, when Lanny Wadkins (one of the best Ryder Cuppers ever) was down one shot on No. 18 and needed to halve his match to ensure victory. He almost drained a 70-yard pitch and got that half point. Captain Jack Nicklaus would later go out and kiss the divot. Or go to 1991's "War By The Shore" when Bernhard Langer missed a six-footer to lose the cup in front of a raucous American crowd. Eight years later, the U.S. was down 10-6 going into the final day and looked done until Justin Leonard won five of his last seven holes and started a frenzied celebration that upset the European team. 2012 saw the U.S. blow its biggest Ryder Cup lead while 2014 was an easy Euro win.
It's a rivalry because they've made it one. And on Friday morning, the newest chapter of Ryder Cup history will begin.
