Ryder Cup Question One: The Real Evil Is The FedExCup Or The European Tour Selling Ryder Cup Venue Selection To Highest Bidder?
I guess that's a bit of a misleading headline?
But after four days of watching the insipid sponge that is Celtic Manor with its flat greens, 70s bunkers and strategy-light design, I'm thinking all of this criticism of the FedExCup for sticking us with an October date is a distraction for writers to conveniently look past the European Tour's prostituting of the "purest" event in golf. Yes, the Celtic swooning was relatively minor, though one scribe noted the courses "fabled finale," referring to the spellbinding finishing stretch.
Still, as poor as most could see the course was, the critics came out against the FedExCup forcing a month later date, but as reader Mark said it best in another thread:
Pretty hard to take Euro journalist complaints about FedEx cup and that money grab seriously when their own tour auctions off the Ryder Cup venue to the highest bidder every 4 years. The fact that the RC is going to Scotland in 4 years and it is not going to St Andrews disqualifies them from ever complaining about someone else dies something for money.
Not only is 2014 not going to St. Andrews, it's not even going to the best course at Gleneagles, a posh but mediocre golf complex when compared to the options in Scotland.
Okay, I know the Celtic Manor surrounds looked pretty...when you could see them. But architecturally it made Valhalla look refined and timeless, but worse than that, accomplished the unthinkable: Celtic Manor actually has me longing for Medinah in 2012 just to see a few interesting decisions!
Celtic has little in the way of charming greens and surrounds, and as we saw, modern subsurface drainage is no substitute for good, old-fashioned surface drainage. Celtic offered little in the way of risk-reward question posing. And before you cite the short par-4 15th, can you recall a player ever agonizing over the decision to go for the green versus laying up? Most egregious of all were those bland par-3s, which created no drama. The Mahan-McDowell match would have been dramatic coming to a polo field of a golf hole, so no crediting No. 17 for fostering a dramatic finish, please.
We keep hearing how this course was designed for the Ryder Cup, however, it featured almost no match play-endearing qualities. Yet it's the big, bad FedExCup that tainted this into a sloppy mess of a Ryder Cup, even as they were enjoying links golf just fifty miles away at the same time Celtic Manor was unplayable. And all because the European Tour has made the event their financial centerpiece and for sale to the highest bidder.
So, after that misleading setup...real evil, FedExCup or European Tour venue selection?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 08:09 PM 45 Comments | in 2010 Ryder Cup, Architecture, European Tour, PGA Tour
Reader Comments (45)
Why not sell the naming rights to the RC?" Rolex presents the RC" Think of all those Euros!
So, what does it all mean? Who knows? But the game will shrink, along with everything else but for the share of global wealth held by the sliver at the very top of the distribution. At the current rate of economic recovery, unemployment in the US will be 12% in 2020. There goes a whole generation of potential golfers, and those of us Shackelfordians who don't play on courses such as Cypress Point, Pine Valley, ANGC, LACC or Swinley Forest will be playing on courses like I was on last weekend for a charity scramble. I now know what it must have been like to play when sheep were the mowers. But we came in third and I won a dozen ProV1s with the Mutual of Omaha logo on them. So I got that going for me.
In golf its customary to congratulate an opponent on the final green for a job well done so my hats off to you Europe!
As a poorish Eurotour player from the late 70s and early 80s and now an occaisional 'guest' employee of said tour I feel I have a reasonable insight into the ET and why the Ryder Cup is so important to it.
I would love ET golf to be on terrestrial tv-ie the BBC-but when the tv rights came up for grabs in the 90s the BBC bid for 5 of the Eurotour's 46 tournaments.Sky stepped in and offered to cover every other event on the tour and whats more they would cover the prize fund should a sponsor pull out mid season.But for that they wanted the Ryder Cup.Can you imagine if Ken Schofield had gone back to his board and told them he had rejected that deal 'for the good of the game'-he wouldnt have lasted another 5 minutes!
Golf on Sky is by and large only watched by current golfers and does little to bring new people into the game but you cant blame the Tour for taking that decision.
Back in the 70s and 80s the ET was seriously inferior to the US tour and boy didnt you let us know it!A group of pseudo pros from the States-very few of whom were much better than 6 handicap-even came over to play our tour in 1978 thinking they would be good enough.How insulting was that!(that even caused a players 'strike' at the Dutch Open-good pub-quiz question that!)
The ET had to grow and improve if it was to become anything like respected and significant in world golf and that is why it has expanded into all sorts of non-european venues and why the potential revenue from the RC became so vital to the tour,The expansion/improvement of the tour required money and it is no surprise they took the options available to them to raise this cash.
We would often play for next to no money on course with no practise facilities etc-it was no surprise we felt-and were-inferior.The ET is now a very well run organisation with a full calendar of events,many of them with top quality international fields and we are producing a considerable number of the worlds top players.This would almost certainly not have happened without the RC money.
I accept that the US tour is stil number 1 and may always be-our top players spending so much time with you is testament to that.What you cant do though is blame Ken Schofield/George o Grady for doing their damnest to try and create what is without doubt the most credible alternative to your tour that there is.
And after years of being made to feel like a piece of dirt on the shoes of the US players its no surprise that they get somewhat excited when they win.
Obviously a better solution than the present one with the US currently getting a matchplay event every year and the Int's and the Euros playing alternate years.
But I guess the US is where the money is so that idea won't run.
Pity.
Certainly one of the most interesting threads, with great information and worthy opinion.
Thank yall for taking the time.
Chico, what a great perspective. Shoot, I got down to a 5.1 before health issues, and I certainly can understand how silly that must have been, having hacks like me out there.
Your overview of the ET and money, the current situaton, the TV, the RC,,,, well, well done.
And come on. You guys were not treated like dirt on the shoes; you were treated more like ..mud in the spikes.
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My biggest criticism was of the pathways/walkways for spectators -dangerous to put it mildly.
1. Come on, this is match play. It's not like a major where you/they don't want a winning score of 20-under.
2. As has been said elsewhere, could Bethpage Black have handled that weather any better? That wasn't obvious at the 2009 USOpen.
3. #15, no not a great short par-4, but as a monster par-3 wasn't it dramatic and influential? Again, this is match play, par is irrelevant. USA was believed to have longer hitters, to nullify that the tees were positioned so all the Euros could reach the green too. So blame it on Monty.
No, CM is not a great course, and I too would prefer a classic links. But the course doesn't make the RC. Did Oakland Hills make the 2004 RC exciting and memorable? Geoff said it--"The Mahan-McDowell match would have been dramatic coming to a polo field of a golf hole." I agree.
"Evil is in the eye of the beholder. Both decisions were made with with the goal of maximizing short term revenue (that's revenue, not profit) at the expense of the long term health of the Game. Hey, it's the business model of the present, everywhere!"
I'm the biggest free market cheerleader around, but the business model of so many right now is exactly what KLG said. That's very sad because of the long term damage it does to both the business and the greater economy.
In so far as Celtic Manor is concerned, it proves, along with Tiger's win at Torrey Pines, that compelling golf action can overcome bad architecture and St. Andrews this year proved that compelling architecture can overcome bad golf action. So, think how much the sport would gain from compelling golf action at a compelling course. You can't control the golf action but you can control the course selection. Ergo pick a compelling course for the long term health of the game!
Someone else will take the sponsorship. The purse might be reduced some, but I think the PGA Tour is satisfied with the growth of the playoffs from the things I have heard them say.
I've just been looking at the history of venues of the cup here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryder_Cup and I don't see many great courses hosting the event in America. In the early days Europe hosted at some great courses...so they are entitled to move it around to promote tourism etc if they wish.
Have to point out, it's supposedly the journalists doing the complaining, not the officials, so it really means absolutely nothing.
It's also funny that all of a sudden, the Fedex cup is not-so-bad?? 4 weeks ago the prevailing thought around here and in much of the golf media was that the fedex cup should disappear.
Stan is correct. But lets face it, the Euro tour has learned everything they know about running the tour from the Americans... monkey see monkey do.
Personally, I would love to see autumn Ryder Cups on the European side move to Spain, which has great weather that time of year. Valderama wasno perfect course, but it was certainly good enough to hold a good match play event.
In the US, there are plenty of great courses in the southwest or even....gasp....Florida that would easily support the action. Imagine TPC Stadium Course at PGA West, or even Dye's Valley Course at Sawgrass if they didn't want to use the Stadium Course. The only hang is, of course, the fact that PGA of America runs the event and they hate the PGA Tour with the power of 10,000 suns so a TPC Course is out of the question. There are others, however, that would fit the bill.
I think Geoff gets it exactly right on the golf course. Not a very good golf course and sadly the 15th was a disappointment.
Who's fault? I would say both but I was educated as to the pressures on the European Tour to generate as much money as possible for other good pursuits. With that said, they could probably raise as much money on a "great course" so....................................
But I do think it really highlights the wonderful nature of the event that such drama can be had time after time on many mediocre courses. BUt playing great courses could evevate it even more. I would LOVE to see a Ryder Cup at Riviera and am so looking forward to the Walker Cup at LACC!! And I can't wait for the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen next year. A wonderful golf course.
Personally, even with the weather issues, the course issues etc I would call this year's Ryder Cup a success. Monday was about compelling as it gets. The Europeans played well (but could have played much better) and the Americans played ok (and should have played a lot better).If only Renton Laidlaw would take over the coverage..........................................
The Euro tour is pretty open about the fact that this is an important money maker for them - Ken Schofield makes no secret about that. And compared to the PGA Tour, it propably needs the money.
Other aspects of the RC are more contentious - the fact that it is a global stage for a bunch of non-major winners who have had a good run over the last two years - only 6 of 24 players this year had any major hardware. It is also a big stage for captains who are from the middle class of the golf world - good careers without a major or with one or has-beens with six who are desperate for attention.
But these are the players/captains who really get jacked up for it and create for good television. The true legends just aren't overly crazy for the event since they always qualify (or always qualified) and have lifted major trophies so many times and felt the jubilation of the real pinnacles of golfing acheivement.
So, not really that evil.
As a Euro I think that the Ryder Cup is overblown and has been part of the reason why many of the Euro tour 'new best things' don't win Majors - they get enough kicks from the Ryder Cup. Having said that, it's not only the Ryder Cup that can disincentivise, you can be a 'global star' if you qualify regularly for the WGC/Majors and tick over nicely at $2-4m a year. Plenty of 'ordinary' US or "Rest of World" players step up and win the Majors, but very rarely is it a Euro's time to bark.
It's excellent that players like Kaymer and McDowell are winning Majors and that Harrington has a few - it gives the others something to aim for after years in the Majors wilderness. Lee Westwood really needs to join that club, fast, as does Casey. McIlroy has more time, but Sergio Garcia did once too.
Absolutely pathetic that some of the euros are trying to convince themselves and others that the RC = a major. What a joke.
Also agree that that it would be great to somehow merge the RC and PC, but nooooooooooooo, the ET wants nothing to do with that. Not a chance. That is why you have hacks like Huggan always running down the PC. Playing a team event once every two years instead of annually would whet the appetite
of the Americans for sure.
Al, great point about Carnoustie and the RC. That finish would be great. Carnoustie tried hard to get the RC, but not enough jack, I guess.
Euros don't compare winning the Ryder Cup to a major. They do say that for Monty, his entire RC resume, playing and captaincy, is to HIM as worthy as the major he never won. Big difference. And McDowell says the pressure on Monday was in a different stratsophere to Pebble Beach. He should know, he's been there.
Carnoustie didn't try hard for the RC. They put in a token bid for the one won by Celtic Manor. As did St Andrews. The Euro Tour needs to sell the RC as it makes up a significant proportion of their turnover, but the hucksterism that goes on is tiresome, agreed.
And as the Belfy and CM proved, in terms of drama it doesn't really matter what it is played on.
Disagree.
I've heard Garcia and others do so.
One Euro, don't remember who, said a few years ago that he rather be on a winning RC team over winning a major. Yeah, right.
I think a RC played there would get everyone pumped up.
Of course the Ryder Cup isn't a major but it remains a special event (playing for your country) to many. Look at Hunter's reaction, the Ryder Cup is important to him.
Good one!
Really? The Fedex Cup pays off on 100% of its purse. The Lie at Dubai doesn't.
Was an interesting topic when it came up last year as I recall. Understanding why the ET does what they do and why I would not be surprised if it ended up in Dubai, Bahrain or anywhere else in the mid east in the future if they write a big enough checlk. Geography of Europe be damned..
On that note I wonder how sure of a thing the Race to Dubai is after this year on the ET after the huge cut they made to the prize fund last year after its financial issues. Chico, C&C, Huggan, Donegan or anybody else from Europe have any idea?
Also many Brits commenting here and elsewhere clearly wish a speedy death to the Fedex Cup and the U.S. PGA Tour. That won't happen but the pointed hostility of so many of them towards U.S. golf only points to their own pathetic bitterness and raging insecurities. 99.9% of U.S. golf fans probably have no opinion of the Euro Tour or think it's fine. Me, I prefer a tour that pays off on its season-ending event. But that's just me. Clearly Graeme McDowell likes that too.
Get over yourself, sonny, millions watch and enjoy the PGA Tour in Europe and wish it absolutely no ill. Your rant clearly illustrates your own pathetic bitterness and raging insecurities rather than any sweeping assertion of what an entire continent feels.
McDowell yesterday, from asapsports
"I want to give it a go next year, because it's a non-Ryder Cup year and I would like to try the FedEx Playoffs. Although I didn't like the format this year. I thought it was very volatile and didn't reward the consistent players this year. If you had a good playoff series, you can win the whole lot."
Ringing endorsement, no question.
That [going to dubai] would surely upset a lot of people, as well as sort of take it out out the spirit of the competition's roots.
Wow. something to ponder.
Europe has admittedly sold its soul in regards to where the RC will be played. If the ET gets a big enough check they will whore out, I mean sell out, the RC regardless of where it is. The PGA of America probably would as well.
Golf, really like most other aspect sof life, seems only to be about following the money.
Hit them well.