Last year’s Ryder Cup was a truly grim event, and things won’t get better at Adare Manor in 2027, by the looks of it.
Before the odious fans that abused the European players and their families entered the Bethpage Black gates in 2025, they were charged $750 for the privilege, which fed into the ugliness that emerged.
It was billed to be a brutal atmosphere and a generally bad occasion as soon as the famous Long Island venue was named as host, and unfortunately, the prophecy came true.
Now, with admission set at €499 a day to watch next year’s matches between Europe and America in Ireland, an equally gross ingredient is being thrown into the pot again. The cycle will continue, and it speaks to much deeper trouble with the event.
If we return to the atmosphere and venue, they are designed so that every sports fan can enjoy them. It used to be played at Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham & St Annes, now it is played at Le Golf National and Valhalla, because birdies and hero moments are more entertaining.
The grandstands and tee boxes are plastered with more sponsors than a Formula 1 driver’s suit. It’s a wonder how it isn’t called the Ryder Cup by Rolex yet. It is a financial monster, to say the least.
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The facade that is the rivalry between Europe and the USA is drummed up so high that the casuals believe it is genuine. Therefore, those who can afford to attend get their money’s worth and cheer like football hooligans, and shout abuse you’d be shocked by in non-league terraces, not necessarily needing alcohol to get up for it, either.
The fans deem the abuse necessary because Sky Sports and everyone else market the Ryder Cup biannually as the Old Firm Derby, so everyone wants to go and watch it.
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When everyone wants to go and watch something, they’ll be asked to pay handsomely by the organisers, a bit like this year’s FIFA World Cup, among countless other examples.
Tangentially, series four of Full Swing, the Netflix show that documents men’s pro golf, is largely based around last year’s Ryder Cup, too. You have to worry that viewers will see all of what I’ve described as the norm in a sport built on tradition and respect.
So at the end of this Shawshank journey through 500 yards of s***-smelling foulness, passing a dumbed-down golf course, some moronic spectators, superficial tension, and now a Netflix doc, we reach inflated ticket prices.
They were €250 in 2023 when the Ryder Cup went to Rome. Inflation has taken it to a depressingly predictable level, and so there is no reason to suggest the other deadly sins won’t grow as well.
Casual fans won’t read between the lines in the same bleak way as I have. Every two years, and again in Limerick in 18 months, they will see chest-beating, drained 40-footers and controversy until the end. Maybe if this is the product that works, does any of this matter?
It matters to those of us who live and die by golf. It is easy to see through the antics and commercialism of the Ryder Cup, when it is held in contrast to week-by-week tournaments, and your own golf on the weekend.
The ticket price will sting your wallet, very harshly, but only temporarily.
€499 is the thin end of the wedge. This figure contributes to far wider concern for those of us who are here every week, and see the event for what it is.
It’s of no concern for the passersby shouting ‘F*** you, Rory’ and chinning warm half-pints of Bud Light.
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