Every once in a while, the lunatics take over the asylum in team match play events.
Sure, the pressure is on and thousands are watching. Your mettle and reputation are on the line and with Team USA at this Solheim Cup, they were on the precipice of not winning four times in a row before the event started. That’s bad.
Passion bursts out in big moments as we have seen countless times at this event and at the Ryder Cup. The scenes of Team USA storming the green in 1999 at Brookline are unwatchable for some European fans, while the intensity of the 1991 edition at Kiawah is still often spoken about.
But as much as we love these biennial tournaments full of drama and excitement, it is these tournaments where golf forgets itself the most and the sport wrote a new chapter of this book on day two of the 2024 Solheim Cup.
Following a bet made on the 2nd tee in the Saturday fourball session, Alison Lee and Megan Khang’s caddies agreed to remove their shirts if one of their players holed out at any point, as opposed to the first suggestion: they’d pay out $500 each.
This happened on that very hole when Lee canned it for an eagle from 86 yards. Jack Fulghum and Taylor Takada kept their promise and took their shirts off in scenes I can’t help but cringe at and struggle to watch. There is adrenaline, of course, but surely not to Hulk levels where clothes are being taken off.
What I mean by golf forgetting itself is these scenes aren’t golf. Like football and rugby, golf is fun and addictive but it’s also respectful, not contact-filled or aggressive. It teaches values and behaviours that are unique.
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Solheim Cup celebration similar to previous scenes at the WM Phoenix Open
The caddies weren’t spiteful with their behaviour and it wasn’t aimed at Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom. Sourness, as a result of poor fan behaviour, has frequently cast a cloud over proceedings at Ryder Cups gone by. These caddies didn’t sour things but like the aforementioned clouds, it was behaviour not symptomatic with the golf-shaped picture in my head but was largely shared and glorified on social media, mirroring the chaos of the WM Phoenix Open in recent years. I just can’t encourage it.
I grimaced when watching Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen remove their tops and swing them in the air on hole 16 at TPC Scottsdale in 2022, and my mind was cast straight to this after watching the scenes in Virginia at the weekend.
Match play causes jubilation to pour out of players. It is a magical format where I can tolerate heart-bursting celebrations, but taking your top off is (forgive the pun) over the top. Maybe the fun police will knock at my door tomorrow and welcome me to the team, but this is a case I won’t let go.
Participants go into a trance when faced with huge team-based moments. Their heads go into orbit which is fine, but when it feels excessive and forced, it subsequently doesn’t feel real. Did that celebration really equate to going 1 up two holes into a fourball match, no matter how spectacular the hole-winning shot was or the pre-meditated nature of the wager?
Not that you can take any range of lead in the Solheim Cup lightly, but the Americans were also 8-4 up at this stage. To me, the shirt-removing madness echoes English football fans who often launch their drinks in the sky when the team full of Premier League stars extend their lead beyond doubt against a side of minnows (Allow the exaggeration, I know Team Europe aren’t minnows).
If I were a player in this match, I’d feel incredibly uncomfortable if my opponent’s caddie stripped half-naked and even more uncomfortable if it was my own caddie.
It’s extraordinary behaviour to see on a golf course but behaviour that unfortunately rears its head more than it should.
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What did you make of the celebrating Solheim Cup caddies? Too much or just a bit of fun? Tell us on X!
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