Do European golf fans really care about the Ryder Cup?

The Game Room
1

Before the Masters coverage this weekend, CBS ran a special about Seve Ballasteros. In said program, they talked about the 1997 Ryder Cup, and how Seve played a crucial role in getting the Ryder Cup to come to Spain. They showed footage of the event and there were a lot of fans in the crowd, exulting for the Europeans’ big shots.

What I would like to know is whether Europeans who are into playing or watching golf actually care who wins the Ryder Cup. For Americans, it makes more sense to root for your country since you do it for the Olympics, World Cup, and whenever we bomb some third-world country into oblivion. Rooting for your continent is a lot more nebulous; I can’t imagine rooting for North America in an event with anything close to the passion reserved for the ole US of A.

Obviously, the players involved care about winning since they are extremely competitive and likely have financial incentives besides. But what about the fans? Is it a “European Pride” thing? A “take that, America!” thing? Or is it not a thing at all?

2

It is a big thing for golf fans over here.

Difficult to say why it is the case but probably because the golfing world was always split into two main powers, the USA and the European tours. The USA was the major force in golf and dominated for quite some time and the UK, or any single country, couldn’t compete so it probably made sense put the Europeans all together and make a fair fight of it. Because there was no real existing inter-country rivalry in Europe there was no real reason not to get behind them and the fabulous drama of the last few decades have cemented its position in the sporting calendar.

3

I’d say yes it is a big thing here in the UK, and not just among die-hard golf fans. It’s big news all over.

I can’t vouch for Europe though. I always get the feeling the rest of Europe doesn’t really care much about golf.

4

Has a player from a Warsaw Pact nation ever had an impact on the PGA tour? (sorry for the hijack)

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nm

6

Actually, Americans had largely forgotten that the Ryder Cup existed until the rules were changed in 1979, so that we were playing against Europe as a whole, rather than just against the UK plus Ireland.

For decades, when it was just the USA against the UK and Ireland, the American team won easily almost every time and nobody paid the event much attention. Once the European team was expanded, things got much more interesting.

The enlarged European team lost the first three tournaments against the American team, but since then, the Euros have usually been stronger than the USA.

Why? Well, PART of it is just plain talent. I mean, in 2006, there were just so MANY great European golfers! The field was so strong that Ian Woosnam had to make some hard choices and leave some EXCELLENT golfers (like the bitter Thomas Bjorn) off the team because there just wasn’t room on the roster for all the deserving European players… whereas Tom Lehman had to scramble to put together a team that year. Heck, in 2006, we could have gone back to the old system, and I’m pretty sure the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh players would have whipped the Americans all by themselves!

Over the past 20 years, I’d say the talent level between the American teams and the European teams has generally been fairly even, but in a few years, the Europeans just had a much stronger field of players to choose from.

When the Europeans are better, they usually win (no surprise). When the teams are evenly matched, well, the Europeans STILL tend to do a little better than the Americans, because it seems to mean more to them.

A lot of Americans (Tiger Woods, most notably) regard the Ryder Cup as a silly, meaningless exhibition match. Beating the Europeans just isn’t that important to man yof the leading Americn players. Europeans generally have more pride invested, and get more of a kick out of beating the Yanks than the Yanks get out of beating the Euros.

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Alex Cejka is a journeyman on the PGATour. He has born in Czechoslovakia and his family escaped to Germany when he was a boy.

he has a several Euro Tour wins, but and has a couple top 10’s in majors but “impact”, not really.

Then there is this gal. I hope she can impact the ladies game.
Edit fixed hyperlink.

8

As an Aussie (who therefore has allegiance to the “Internationals”), I just like the way that the Americans play in the President’s Cup as well as the Ryder Cup. Until the Europeans deign to play the Internationals I’ll be supporting the US in the Ryder Cup.

9

Given the relative dominance of the Europeans, the US team would benefit more from recruiting the rest of the world.

10

Last time round it was referred to as the third biggest sporting event in the world, in terms of worldwide tv viewers. Sounds like bollox to me but it was a claim repeatedly made.

There’s no doubt it’s a major event in the UK - a crossover event that gets watched by people with no otherwise interest in golf. My feeling is that interest has waned slightly as the modern golfers don’t capture the public’s imagination in quite the same way as the previous generation did. Just my opinion though and there’s no question it’s still a big event.

11

From here the leading TV events were:

  1. Cricket World Cup; semi final India v Pakistan: 1 billion

  2. Soccer World Cup; final Italy v France: 600 million

  3. Winter Olympics opening ceremony; Italy: 249 million

  4. Super Bowl; Pittsburgh Steelers v Seattle Seahawks: 98 million

The 2011 Champions League Final was expected to attract over 200 million viewers (but my Google-fu for actual numbers has failed me :smack: )

12

I think you got your answer today.

13

We like it when we win! :slight_smile:

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We do in the UK, probably more than the US. Even non Golf fans get into it.

British golf fans have “adopted” all European players as “ours”, since the early 80s. It’s the only occasion I’ve seen EU flags waved with enthusiasm.

15

From Scotland - and No I would support a Scot or someone from the UK but dont give a damb about Europe - if it was the weekend - who did I want to win - dont care - golf was fun. If the US and the UK still played head to head - then UK all the way - but still be fun no matter who won.

16

In Spain I don’t know anybody who’ll watch it the way they would a soccer or basket match, but I do know many guys who will flip over to it during the ads of whatever it is they’re actually watching.

It’s both one of the few golf events that will get some actual airwave time and one of the few that, as for the UK, manages to stir the non-fans. For many of them (such as my brother) it isn’t so much the “us vs them” as that it gives him a whole new basket of stats to play with and try to guess who’ll be in and who won’t; he doesn’t really care enough to follow it normally, but as an occasional one-shot it’s fun - similar to how many guys who aren’t really that much into soccer will suddenly wake up when there’s a big international event coming, and spend months trying to outguess the Red Fury’s “Mister”.

17

I am not a major golf fan but I am one of the people that have been referred to in this thread, in that I am much more interested in the Ryder Cup than might otherwise be thought, given my other interests.

For me, it breaks down into a few things:

  • The team format appeals to me - especially the tactics involved in the foursomes and fourballs pairings and how it governs how each team will strategically tackle the course;

  • Matchplay golf makes a lot of sense to me - the non-avid golf fan. I accept that strokeplay tells you more easily who the the best player is, but there is something to be said for a format in which fucking up a hole only leaves you one down rather than essentially out of the running;

  • Related to the above is the man to man aspect of the competition. I really like the idea that a great shot immediately puts pressure on the other guy, instead of it being a roar on a different hole and news filtering through that someone is on a charge up the leaderboard. I guess what I am saying is, I find it much more immediate.

  • And finally, there is definitely an edge to it that you don’t necessarily see in golf elsewhere. Even other matchplay tournaments are not as full on as the Ryder Cup (I’ve watched Presidents Cup and World Matchplay stuff - I find them interesting but it’s not like the Ryder Cup, where it’s much less genteel).

All of this stuff makes it more interesting to me. I’ll usually watch the Masters and the Open Championship, but probably not the US Open or the US PGA, unless there’s nothing else on. I’ll definitely make time to watch the Ryder Cup though.

18

Since there doesn’t seem to be another Ryder Cup thread, I hope the OP doesn’t mind if I answer his question and then comment on the weekend’s play.

Firstly, my opinion is much in line with Cumbrian’s above, with the added dimension that the status of other matches can have an effect on your own match. Also, we are fortunate that Europe and the USA are very evenly-matched at the moment and have been for the last few years, which almost inevitably seems to lead to exciting finishes. So yes, Europe does care.

And this is even more true now after the fantastic result yesterday! I was surprised that Furyk choked so badly but less so at Stricker, who it seems to me is just in the team to be Tiger’s partner (presumably no-one else wants to be). Don’t get me wrong, I like the way Tiger plays and I’d be happy to see him break Nicklaus’s record (though please don’t let’s have that discussion again in this thread) but when he’s on the other team, he is fair game and him going 0 for 4 was very amusing. I’d be surprised if he ever gets a wildcard pick again, surely it must be agreed now that his effect on the team is clearly negative? This would also allow the US to dump Stricker who looked pretty hopeless all weekend.

Did anyone else get a bit fed up of the whole “inspired by Seve” shtick? On the other hand, Olazabal clearly knew what he was doing in terms of motivation, so congrats to him and to the whole team for believing in it and for staying strong even once they had become favourites.

Final word - there was certainly some incredible golf played by both sides over the competition, but it seemed to me there were some very low scores being posted (particularly as it was fairly windy) - was the course set up a bit easier than your average major championship course these days, or was it just players from both teams rising to the occasion? Forgive me (as a very casual golf fan) if this is a silly question.

19

He was actually 0-3-1. He halved with Molinari after generously conceding a 3 foot putt on 18 to allow Molinari to win the hole and halve the match.

You may already know this, but note that Woods was not a wildcard pick this year (he was in 2010).

Yes. I kept wanting to correct them when they said that “Seve is here.” No he isn’t; your memory of him is here.

You nailed it. Love had the course set up easier than a major, saying that it made it more exciting (which is true). However, I am sure he would not have done it had he not also felt that it favored his team.

20

Relevant to the above, there’s also the fact that the US setup lately seems to result in a well-meaning, relatively-popular FUCKING IDIOT ending up as Captain.