Before the Ryder Cup became the Ruder Cup, Sports Illustrated’s Iain MacMillan made this prediction: “We’re going to witness the fall of Team USA at this year’s Ryder Cup. The assumption that the Americans will always be the betting favourite will stop after Europe gets the job done on enemy soil.”
Someone forgot to tell the bookies. The USA were the outright favourites to win. Betway, for example, had Europe as a 12-1 outside chance and the US at 1.61. That is a huge swing. Mind you, there were a few moments on Sunday night during squeaky bum time when it looked as if the US might just live up to the prematch hype at Bethpage Black, but, in the end, a man from Offaly did what he described as the coolest thing in his life.
Some didn’t get it quite right but were close. Christopher Powers of Golf Digest wrote: “The very recent history of this event would lead you to believe this should be a US blowout. While part of me thinks that’s the most likely outcome, another part of me is drinking this disgusting European Kool-Aid about them bringing 11 of 12 guys back from Rome, bringing Luke Donald back, and seeming extremely well-prepared and determined for this away-game test. That still won’t be enough to win, but it will be enough to keep it close on Sunday, which will make for great TV.”
Great TV? Man, it was the best sport on TV you will see this year. I watched from 1pm to after midnight on Friday and Saturday (save for a brief hop over to the Bok match) and every match on Sunday. “Riveting” does not do it justice. Magnificent, vicious, triumphant, arrogant, ugly, beautiful and extraordinary.
Except that the Americans didn’t tune in on Sunday. Golf Digest reports that “Sunday’s coverage across NBC and Peacock (so, including streaming) averaged 3.22-million viewers. That’s the lowest viewership for a US-based Ryder Cup this century.”
In the UK, though, Sky Sports said that “one in four TV viewers in the UK were watching the Ryder Cup’s finale on Sunday, ‘including more than 40% of under-35s.’ The audience was the highest-ever for golf on Sky Sports.”
That’s 5-million viewers in total, up 45% from the 2023 Ryder Cup. The US don’t like losing. They tuned out and turned off.
That didn’t stop the louts at Bethpage Black from turning up the volume on Saturday. McIlroy stopped in his preswing routine to tell one load of fans to “Shut the f**k up” and then stiffed it to within two feet. How satisfying was that?, McIlroy was asked in the posttournament presser.
“Pretty f**king satisfying.” Was McIlroy wrong in hitting back at the fans? Should he have gone harder? Should he have kept quiet? He and his wife were the lightning rod for the abuse. Shane Lowry was called fat and threw some sweets into the crowd after he had sunk the putt that retained the cup.
Heather McMahan, the American comedian who stood down as an MC after leading a chant of “F**k you, Rory”, is married to the actor Jeff Daniels, who starred in Dumb and Dumber, which is what she admitted she was and apologised to McIlroy for.
“I did not start the chant. I would just like that narrative to get out there. I did not start it. But, anyway, that I had participated in that, even just saying it once, was so foolish and silly of me, and as soon as it came out and they started chanting, I was just like, ‘Ugh’, the energy just shifted. It went from us trying to be fun and funny and, like, get it going to immediately just being negative, and it felt really kind of toxic.”
The toxicity added to the drama, but golf should not be that ugly; the Ryder Cup should not become a feral beast. Passion is good. Jokes are good. Homophobia and insults are not.
The American fans were a reflection of what the US has become under Donald Trump, where volume has replaced integrity, and where outrage is a starting point. As the Washington Post wrote in 1999 after the ugly scenes at Brookline: “It seems an American team can’t get through an international competition without acting like jackasses at some point.”
Last week I wrote they would have to change the name of the course to Bethpage Black and Blue. It’s nice to be right.
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