Problems With The Ryder Cup For The Americans
posted in My Golf Stories |There are a lot of questions all around concerning the problems with the U.S. Ryder Cup teams. Well, I am going to put my two cents into the picture. I believe the problems started several years ago and have gotten progressively worse. If you look at the tour exemptions and when the formula for the top 125 exempt status started several years ago maybe the united states problems started to manifest. Before the tour started using this top 125 exempt status there were Monday qualifiers and what was referred to as rabbits. Every Monday before a tournament there was qualifying for several spots in that weeks tournament field. Several players made a living following the tour and hoping to land a spot in the field and if they played well enough they could assure themselves a spot in the next tournament. This competition among a large group of competitors was very intense, because these guys were truly playing for a living and their survival as professional golfers.
I believe the Ryder Cup blues for the Americans began when this competition ended and guarantees came more into the picture for the tour. No longer did the players have too worry about their future as much. This is also when big time TV contracts started coming around for golf and I believe for the sake of the TV contracts the executives that marketed to the corporate world wanted some guarantee that the top stars would usually be around on Sunday. This also spelled doom for most all competition involving match play. Match play events became taboo because the TV sponsors were afraid the stars would not be around come Sunday play and the TV ratings would suffer. In the old days some of the bigger tournaments were match play events and this probably helped to toughen the competitors. Without match play tournaments, guaranteed spots for so many on the tour and big money contracts for a lot of players as soon as they come onto the tour does not lend itself to tough competitors.
You could ask yourself, which influences the most on each other–sports influencing society or society influencing sports. In the US society we may be leaning too much toward a life of guarantees and not enough toward reaping your rewards from hard work. The golfers coming from the great depression and living through World War II, knew what hard work was all about and had to figure out a lot of things for themselves. The modern player of today plays a round and when he is done he goes to the cell phone or e-mail and gets in touch with his swing or mind guru. These gurus try and get the player thru the tournament and get him home in front of a high speed video camera and straighten out the problems for another week. Just about all of the older generation of professionals figured out their own problems and did not care much for training aids or those people who had not proven themselves as players. I believe one such famous player has made the comment that if you can’t beat me then how can you tell me how to play the game.
I am not against coaches, videos, psychologist or anyone that can help you play better golf. But I think the game of life and the game of golf suffer when too much is guaranteed. When the Ryder Cup comes around every two years you cannot expect these guys to change into something they are not use to doing and that is really competing for three rounds like everything in the world depends on it. Most of the top players that qualify for the team are making millions, which is fine, but to play three days under this immense pressure is something they are not familiar. The requirements to qualify for the team need to be changed in order to make sure that the members are truly the players that are playing the best at the time. Just because you have a high world ranking does not mean you are playing very well for some time leading up to the Ryder Cup. The world ranking system may be flawed, and you can be playing really well or bad and not move up or down fast enough.
Maybe there should be more match play events and the sponsors will just have to be more supportive of whoever makes it to the finals on Sunday. The game was not designed for super stars, but was meant to see who could score the best at a given time. There may also be flaws in scheduling, all of the competitors for world ranking do not play the same tournaments, which would not be possible, so more attention needs to be paid to this. A lot of the playing field has the luxury of picking the tournament and courses that best fit their games. This picking and choosing the courses one plays may really show up in the majors for some players, and this may be the reason why some of the top ranking players do not have a good record in the majors.
I know big TV money has helped the game in so many ways and there is a lot to be thankful for in this regard. The bigger purses have gotten more and better athletes into golf early and made it possible for a larger group of professionals to make a great living. But let’s not forget the game itself and what it is all about, and that is competition and the playing of the game. The great players come and go every generation, some last longer than others and they all have something to contribute, but in the end they all will go and leave the game to those that follow. No one is bigger than the game itself.
We maybe trying to change the game so that it fits into our society instead of fitting society into the game, one of honor, integrity and hard work for your rewards. In a society where sometimes we are too concerned about being politically correct. Let’s support the game and all it stands for and maybe thru better and tougher competition the US can be more competitive in the future Ryder Cups.
Your thoughts and comments are welcome.