between fans and golfers, wherein the will of the crowd influences results. This would explain the ridiculous, repeating phenomenon where the home team sinks long putt after long putt, sticks irons to gimme distance, and responds to any wayward approach by chipping in, while the visiting team seems to be magnetically drawn to every hazard on the property. A NEUTRAL VENUE IS UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN If I'm right that the crowds are the insurmountable hurdle to a competitive event, well ... in that case you're basically screwed, because they're not moving this thing to a neutral venue. "Ryder Cup: Argentina" or "Ryder Cup: Moscow" isn't happening. That means we're in the age of impasse, and there's no extracting ourselves from this quagmire. That quagmire leads us to an inevitable pronouncement: The Ryder Cup is boring. Which is a great irony, because the lead-up to the Ryder Cup is about as intriguing and interesting as any subject in golf. Analysing this thing is truly fun, and a parallel bummer of the evolution towards predictability is that you can't really go deep on the subject anymore. Sure, you can pick apart the course setup and the pairings and the strategy and various other logistics, but beneath it all is the sense that none of it matters. It all gets swept aside in the tidal wave of home-course advantage. Why waste time arguing? The home team is always going to win! Fatalism abounds! I don't know the solution. I'm not sure anybody knows the solution. Or if we do, it lies down paths we can't travel. It bears saying now that the Ryder Cup has been on death's door before – after World War Two, when an obscure American businessman revived it, at the advent of the European era when large sponsors were lost and Jacklin applied the defibrillator paddles, to name two – and has always found a way to survive. It must do so again, or this latest requiem, this eulogy for the soul of the dead, will become the definitive one. As they say just down the road from Marco Simone, requiescat in pace .
STABILITY
FOR THE WIN
AVAILABLE NOW
South African course designer of Marco Simone, Dave Sampson, with Europe team captain Luke Donald.
86 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 87
NOVEMBER 2023
NOVEMBER 2023
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