“Oi Vey, Oi Vey, Oi Vey, Oi Vey”

Paraphrasing the annoying European cheer at team golf exhibitions

The Ryder Cup is a mess. Full stop. The biennial exhibition between professional golfers from the United States and the European continent used to be interesting, entertaining, and most important, competitive. It also used to be, and should go back to being, an EXHIBITION.

Honestly, who really cares which team wins this every two-year debutante ball? Who, besides a couple of players, a handful of people in golf media, and various knuckleheads on social media sites? These days the Europeans win in Europe, the United States wins in the United States and lately it hasn’t been particularly close. I heard someone say today that the Ryder Cup is the third biggest sports event in the world. That’s laughable, especially when you consider they can’t get more than a million and a half people to watch it on television. Heck, it wasn’t even the third biggest sports event on the first Sunday in October. Fewer people watched the Ryder Cup than watched any NFL game, any NFL PREGAME show, BULL RIDING, or the NASCAR race in Talladega! So, let’s give up this notion that it matters, that it’s important, that it’s anything more than an exhibition. Let it return to its roots.

First, there is no “us v them” anymore. Save for one or two guys, which won’t be the case in 2025, they all play almost every week together on the PGA TOUR. Most of them live in the same sheltered neighborhoods in South Florida. One even lives on the “mean streets” of Stillwater, OK. Half of them are in business together and there’s a better than 50-50 chance more of them will be teammates in something other than the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup sooner rather than later. This “rivalry” nonsense is just that, nonsense. Is it fun to see Brooks Koepka square off against Jon Rahm in something other than The Masters? Absolutely. But it should be what it is… fun. Not some manufactured life and death cage match. If it’s all that and a bag of chips from a competition standpoint, why in the world is there such a thing as the Nicklaus/Jacklin Award ?

Second, the makeup of the teams has got to change. There is all sorts of hand wringing happening now because of who the United States brought across the pond to participate. “Should there be six ‘captain’s selections’?” “Should we get rid of the ‘old boys club’ when it comes to picks?” And the most preposterous of all, “Should we create a full-time ‘United States Ryder Cup captain job’?” Good golly Miss Molly. The answers are no, yes, and no. Yes to the second one because it’s time for the golf dinosaurs and curmudgeons Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, et.al. to go back to their rocking chairs and their meaningless old guys golf. They rarely had the answers decades ago, they certainly don’t have them now.

Third, the over corporatization of this behemoth has ruined the television product. It’s not only the incessant commercial breaks that interrupt the coverage and torpedo most of the drama, it’s the fact that it’s the SAME commercials inside those commercial breaks that further drive viewers to drink at 2 in the morning. Seriously, is the Derek Jeter Grand Wagoneer commercial the ONLY one Jeep produced? Of course not but it’s the one they made you watch a gazillion billion times. Thank goodness he didn’t run over that coyote!

Fourth, pay the players? PeeShaw! It’s an exhibition. If you don’t want to play, don’t play. I promise, like the Davis Cup in tennis, after one or two cycles nobody will give a hoot.

Have I mentioned that it’s an EXHIBITION? Here is what I would do… not that anyone cares.

Dial back the pomp and circumstance nonsense. Galas? Dinners? Wives and girlfriend outings? Elaborate Opening Ceremony with speeches, anthems, flyovers? Ralph Lauren and Loro Piano uniforms? The Golf Channel “Live From” show starting on MONDAY? Get rid of all of it. Carl Paulson, on Sirius XM PGA TOUR Radio suggested bar-b-cues, beers, and hanging out instead of cloistered “team rooms”. As my old colleague Rich Lerner would say, “do that.”

Let the players wear what they want to wear, including hats that fit, and give them a patch to put on their sleeve or chest designating the two teams. That would help solve the “pay to play” gibberish because sponsors could have meaningful bonuses for “making the team” in contracts.

Have a relevant and unbiased points system that identifies the top six players. Put them on the team. The captain and his cronies get to pick two more. Then do what Major League Baseball and other professional leagues do… have a FAN VOTE for the remaining four spots. Of course, you would have to have some parameters because as Brian Katrek so eloquently stated on his and John Maginness’s radio show, “fans are dumb”. But let the people decide even if they choose club professional Michael Block or amateur Nick Dunlap. IT’S AN EXHIBITION!!!

The sooner we start putting the Ryder Cup in its rightful place the better off we’ll all be.

Thanks for reading this. I’ve also written some books, including one detailing my two decades at The Golf Channel. You can find them at Amazon or http://www.keithhirshland.com