The Ryder Cup has become a massive sporting event of almost gladiatorial proportions and there is considerable anticipation as next weekend’s encounter approaches at Gleneagles in Perthshire.
Few have forgotten the dramatic ‘Meltdown at Medinah’ in the last tournament. It was an absolute cracker, a real nail-biter in which Europe grabbed a most unlikely victory on the final day.
It is hard to imagine that less than 40 years ago the media were calling for the event to be scrapped owing to lack of interest.
By the 1970s, the Ryder Cup had simply become too one-sided, with the US beating their Great Britain opponents in the previous 10 meetings, often by large margins. Public interest was waning and even the American players were not enjoying their comfortable triumphs.
That this has all changed is partially thanks to the great Jack Nicklaus, who after another crushing victory by the US in 1977, persuaded British PGA president Lord Darby to allow Europeans into their side to make things a little more competitive. He probably didn’t realise just how competitive it would become.
European success did not happen overnight, however. The first European side, which contained Spain’s Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido, was thrashed in 1979 and again in 1981. But in 1983 there was just a one point difference.
Then in 1985, spurred on by the words of team captain Tony Jacklin — “Hang your egos outside. Let’s put this effort into the team’’ — the Europeans finally tasted victory after 28 long years.
How times have changed. Since 1995, the Americans have only prevailed twice in nine encounters. Their successes came at the bitterly contested 'Battle of Brookline' in 1999, which they won by one point and a comfortable five-point victory at Valhalla in 2008.
The Ryder Cup is golf’s biggest event, but is also its strangest. All year round you have top professional golfers playing for huge sums of money, and they seem to take it in their stride. Then, in the only tournament they don’t get paid — apart from a nominal sum — these cool professionals can suffer a near meltdown.
It’s because they are playing for a team rather than themselves. No one wants to let the other players down. It all comes down to pressure, a word we will be hearing a lot of at Gleneagles next weekend.
We will also be hearing plenty about the magnificent PGA Centenary Course. Designed by Nicklaus, he called it “the finest piece of land I have ever been given to work with’’.
The course has a character of its own , from the opening 'Bracken Brae' to the challenging 18th, 'Dun Roamin’. In between they will be tackling such holes as 'Gowden Beastie' aka 'Golden Bear' named after the designer and the tricky 17th, 'Ca’ Canny' meaning 'be careful', which speaks for itself.
The Ryder Cup is the only golf tournament capable of reducing normally stoic golfers to tears.
“I cried in the locker room and Seve Ballesteros cried with me,’’ admitted Costantino Rocca after the Europeans’ loss in 1993.
Four years later Jose Maria Olazabal was blubbering away — and his team had won.
Golf is one of the few high-profile sports in which good behaviour and etiquette is still well entrenched. Any tantrums or breaking of the rules, even unintentional, are deeply frowned upon. The rules of golf are probably the most strict of any sport and you fail to adhere to them at your peril, even when they seem a little unfair.
These rules extend to the spectators. Go to any regular tournament and you will find the fans respect golf etiquette. But over the years in the Ryder Cup this has changed somewhat, with the galleries becoming increasingly rowdy. The crowd at Medinah two years ago was arguably the most raucous ever, although the mainly European spectators at Celtic Manor two years earlier were a bit on the noisy side too.
However with this year’s tournament being played in Scotland, things are not likely to get out of hand. The Scots know their golf better than anyone and the Americans can be guaranteed a warm welcome.
There is no Tiger Woods this year, but strange though it seems, the Americans probably won’t miss him.
Woods has a surprisingly modest record in the tournament and has rarely played his best golf. The only time he was on the winning side was in 1999.
As witnessed by the drama at Medinah, it is always dangerous to predict the outcome of any Ryder Cup tournament. On paper the Europeans, with four of the world’s five top players — Rory Mcllroy, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia — look the stronger side.
But that can be deceptive in a matchplay situation. On several occasions in the past the US appeared to have the better golfers, but they were unable to complete the job.
Europe captain Paul McGinley has organised an impressive array of vice-captains to help him make the right decisions. For his part, US captain Tom Watson says he will do “everything possible” to win back the trophy. He will be relying on Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Robbie Fowler and the reliable Jim Furyk to come up with the goods.
It should be a gripping weekend at Gleneagles, so long as the Scottish weather behaves itself. Perthshire is not necessarily the driest place in the world come late September.
It could all come down to whether it is the Americans or Europeans who are most successful at “hanging their egos outside’’.