The Ryder Cup tees off tomorrow and has become a must-see television event in the United States, as Europe try win the title they surrendered at Whistling Straits two years ago.
The US team may start as favorites but since 1979 the Europe team has picked up 11 titles, the Americans nine, with one event being tied.
The blockbuster event takes place in Rome, Italy this weekend, with the US side only winning on two occasions on foreign soil (1985 and 2014).
The Ryder Cup is not played for money or spots on the world rankings, but rather for a pride that is unprecedented in golf.
“Other than the Ryder Cup, the most pressure you could feel is in a major,” said Koepka, the only LIV golf partaking in the competition.
Koepka has won five major titles and is a former world number one.
Another ex-number one and multiple major winner Rory McIlroy is now one of the Ryder Cup’s most ardent supporters, despite calling it, “exhibition golf,” in his younger years on the tour.
The Ryder Cup as a spectacle has an interesting back story as told by golf. Com’s James Colgan.
NBC, the broadcaster, famously lost MLB Saturday afternoon game to CBS and went all in for acquiring more sports rights, with the Ryder Cup being one of the more prominent landings.
NBC Sports President in the 80’s was Dick Ebersol, and he convinced his future successor Jon Miller to get any rights, for any sporting event, and he became fixated on the Ryder Cup.
“Nobody had ever aired the Ryder Cup live and give it the attention it deserves,” said Miller at the time.
“That was appealing,” he added.
There was the usual bleating about the popularity and ratings of the event, with sceptics saying, “nobody cares about the Ryder Cup; nobody’s gonna watch fourth-quarter golf.”
How wrong the naysayers have become as the event was cemented into sporting folklore in 191 in “The War by the Shore,” at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
The US team, so bereft of gold before that, won the trophy when German Bernhard Langer missed a putt on the last hole of the last match.
The tournament has soared into the public attention since then, and we all have CBS circa 1980’s to thank.
