Is it time for a Senior Ryder Cup?

For three days of the year, every two years, those who have no interest in golf suddenly can’t get enough. The Masters gets a few going but nothing compares to the Ryder Cup.

So why, when those three little words ‘grow the game’ are nauseatingly rammed down our throats, aren’t we taking advantage of all the heroes and past captains from previous matches and putting together a senior Ryder Cup version?

In recent years a few old boys are wheeled out in the early stages of the week but there’s no edge to it. Also, if you’ve ever been to the monotony of a Ryder Cup practice day then you’d like to think that you’re already a fan of the concept.

“They’ve been talking about this for a while and now we have enough competitive players it would be on the cards. The early part of the week at a Ryder Cup is a bit dead and the players might play nine holes,” said 2010 captain Colin Montgomerie.

“So the course is empty but the crowds are there and the stands are up so we could come in and play. There would be no cost as everyone is there anyway and it would give the crowd something to cheer on – we think it’s overdue and that we could do this.”

Montgomerie adds that it is a regular conversation and all the big names from the over-50 gang would be interested in getting it going.

“Bernhard Langer has said the same, Davis Love would be on board, Fred Couples too. We’ve had the conversation and it would just be a matter of formulating it and getting the powers that be to go ahead with it.

“It would never take the gloss away from the main event, if anything it would make the event even more special as you can’t compete with the real thing. And it would be great to try and emulate some famous matches – Darren Clarke and I played Couples and Love at Valderrama and that could happen again.”

For the record Monty and Clarke won at the last. As for Europe’s 2016 skipper, he’s another who would be well in favour of going head-t0-head again with the great and good of the American game.

“It would be wonderful, the Ryder Cup is a huge sporting global event and the figures and interest are huge. If you were to take a look at a senior Ryder Cup which would feature a lot of the same players but a little older then I think there would be an appetite for that,” said Clarke.

“You would think that it’s a no-brainer but there must be people with much smarter minds than mine who don’t yet think that it’s really viable. You would obviously need a sponsor to get involved and you need people to get behind it. I would love to see it happen but it’s for other people to figure out the logistics but a lot of people would enjoy it.”

As for a tentative jab at those logistics Clarke insisted that players would have to play their way onto the team.

“It’s all hypothetical about how you might qualify for it, it might be an eight or 10 or 12-man team or whatever but you would have to have a bit of qualification for it and to earn your spot, as you do on the main team. And it would have to come from both the Staysure and Champions Tours.”

Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke are ambassadors for Loch Lomond Whiskies, the official spirit of The Open. You can purchase the Loch Lomond Whiskies Open Special Edition single malt here.