As frustrating as it was to watch the 49ers lose to the Packers Sunday night in the last 30 seconds of the game (especially considering I stayed up way past bedtime), the thrill of the U.S. win at the Ryder Cup earlier in the day more than compensated for the loss (by an order of magnitude). But there was more to the win than the mere thrill of victory. It’s hard to remember a golf event with as much emotion, drama, beauty, camaraderie and destiny than the duel on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was pure romance and it made you fall in love with the game all over again.
Herewith, the main characters and events of the Ryder romance.
The Team: Golf is a famously individual sport, so fans and players alike enjoy the team format of the Ryder Cup, but the players this year exulted in it. Several of them, like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, had friendships that went back to high school days. It was a young team and they all came up together, bonded by talent, swagger and the golden halo of Tiger Woods. The exception, of course, was the social media-fueled spat between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. Everybody was kind of rooting for them to be paired together at some point — and Capt. Steve Stricker insisted that they had both asked for it to happen — but it was not to be. But the tension between the two was resolved nicely in another way (see the last item in this column). The theme of the 2021 golf season has been the changing-of-the-guard with so many talented young players on the rise. The Ryder Cup put an exclamation point on it.
Whistling Straits: The golf course is a craggy beast, straight out of “Outlander” or “Golf In the Kingdom.” It had the primordial, elemental feel of Prestwick in Scotland, which hosted the first Open Championship in 1860. A hilly, linksy layout on the shores of Lake Michigan, Whistling Straits played a punishing 7,200 yards, but it wasn’t just the length. The greens were complex and the bunkers were deep, but it was the rough that prevailed. It was so thick and tall it ate up the best of ‘em. DeChambeau, aka the Hulk, tried to hit out of a clump of 12-inch grass and even his mighty swing only advanced the ball two feet.
But part of the romance of the competition was how players rose to the challenge, defied the elements, and hit the kind of shots that Jordan Speith did on the 17th hole on Saturday. By the way, the 17th hole, a Par 3 that measured more than 200 yards on Sunday, played the villain in this romance. It’s one of Pete Dye’s most intimidating Par 3 holes (“dye-abolical,” said Justin Leonard), guarded on the left by sand dunes that fall 20 feet below green level and Lake Michigan about 20 paces further downhill. If I was on that tee box, my sphincter would be somewhere between my shoulder blades. The course was developed by Herb Kohler, who made a fortune on bathroom fixtures, so it was fitting that the margin-of-error on many shots was as narrow as a bathroom water pipe.
Emotion: Romance, of course, requires emotion and we got a lot of that at the Ryder. Even Patrick “Patty Ice” Cantlay was whipping up the crowd. But the defining moment, the one that captured the depth of emotion at the event, was Rory McIlroy coming off his singles match on Sunday after putting the first point of the day on the board for the European side. In a remarkably honest interview he broke into tears talking about his team, the game and the nature of the event itself. A few minutes later, the camera caught him giving Stricker a hug. I coach First Tee for 10-year-old kids and sportsmanship is one of our nine core values; I’m going to show all of them that video this week.
Bryson: Let’s just say it. Bryson was the star of the show. He had the biggest crowds and for good reason. “Everybody who was there with their kids said the guy who hung out the the longest and signed the most autographs was Bryson,” noted one of the NBC commentators. Despite the pressure of the competition, he bantered with the gallery. They loved it. He hit some event-defining shots, like driving the green on the first hole of singles play on Sunday and then putting out for eagle (oh yeah, on Friday he drove it 417 yards on the fifth hole, a shot that nearly reached the Canadian border). His performance, as well as his bonhomie, helped rehabilitate an image that had been battered, justified or not, for much of this season.
The Press Conference: Every good romance needs a little comic relief and we got that in spades at the post-tournament press conference. By that time, everybody had a couple of cocktails under their blue belts and it showed. It was the most I’ve heard Dustin Johnson talk in 20 years. They performed as a team in front the cameras, just as they had on the course. They were so funny at times it almost seemed scripted. “Did Tiger send you a text telling you guys to step on their (the Europeans) necks?” asked one reporter. “Tiger who?” replied Justin Thomas. Watch it. It’s a classic.
The Hug: Yes, it happened. Twice. Once on the course and then at the presser when somebody yelled out, “Can Brooks and Bryson please hug?” and then started singing War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends.” I swear Brooks gave a little eye roll, but Bryson walked down in front of the trophy and waited for him. It was a little awkward and then it wasn’t. And I don’t think it was the victory that bonded them — it was the romance.
Yes...this was " Just Exactly Perfect!!!"