FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — If golf’s so-called “longest day” belongs to the U.S. Open, its longest week comes every two years at the Ryder Cup.
This week, on account of an ominous Thursday forecast mucking up the schedule, that has felt especially true. With Thursday looking to be a washout (and proving to be), event organizers moved what is typically the closing act of the Ryder Cup preamble — the opening ceremonies — from Thursday to Wednesday.
That meant, after the pomp and circumstance of the captains’ speeches and team introductions and a rendition of the national anthem that was accompanied by a trio of military helicopters buzzing overhead — it still wasn’t time to play ball. Far from it. The opening tee shot was, agonizingly, still another 50 hours away.
The 45th Ryder Cup dawned on Monday with practice rounds and a press conference with U.S. captain Keegan Bradley and his European counterpart, Luke Donald. Tuesday brought more practice rounds; eight more pressers, including another breakout session with each captain; and the Ryder Cup gala, for which the American players (in snappy suits and white sneakers) and their wives and girlfriends (in couture dresses) drove an hour northwest of here, for mingling and munchies in a Tudor-style manse in Sands Point. Wednesday’s agenda: more practice rounds; seven more pressers, including one with super-chef Jose Andres, who played Wednesday in the Ryder Cup Celebrity All-Star Match with the likes of SNL star Colin Jost, actress Catherine Zeta Jones and — you cannot be serious! — tennis great John McEnroe; a handful of Junior Ryder Cup matches (at day’s end the U.S. had a one-point lead); and the aforementioned opening ceremonies, emceed by man-about-town Carson Daly and Golf Channel’s Kira Dixon, and featuring a couple of sly digs from European captain Luke Donald about the six-figure “stipend” the U.S. players pocketed for playing this week.
If you’re feeling slightly fatigued or disinterested by all this pageantry and hype, imagine how Bradley and Donald feel; they’ve been obsessing over this event for over a year and are surely beyond ready for the contest to begin.
Or how about the guys who will actually be hitting the shots? Getting up for the Ryder Cup isn’t too big an ask, but getting up and staying up is harder than it sounds. Golfers talk a lot about peaking at the right times. That means not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. If players wake up on Ryder Cup Monday ready to run through brick walls, you’d forgive them for losing some of that steam in the interminable march to Friday morning.
The U.S. team has received support on this front from its five vice captains: Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Gary Woodland. Depending on the player, setting and mood, that boost might come in the form of a pep talk or, say, a practice-round prop bet to help keep the boys focused.
“They are able to read everyone on our team and say, hey, this guy needs a little bit of a pick-me-up and push you and a little poke,” Collin Morikawa said Wednesday. Bradley said much the same of his support team, noting, “Every day we go out, whether it’s Friday of the tournament or a practice round like today, we want to make sure the guys are in the right state of mind with the right mindset of what we want to do during the week and get them prepared to be ready to go on Friday morning.”
The crowds have helped keep the players amped, too, although they haven’t exactly been piercing eardrums. Not yet, anyway. Thus far, these New York galleries — as observed on this reporter’s strolls around the property — have not brought the grandstand-rattling thunder and salty smack talk that many thought they would. Sure, there have been hoots and hollers and sporadic chants of “U-S-A!” (and Matt Fitzpatrick did get razzed by a cluster of fans for struggling with a chip shot), but the vibe, by Ryder Cup standards, has been more mellow than mad.
That will change come Friday morning. The players know it — and those who can most effectively channel that charge will greatly benefit from it, as has always been the case in this most electric of golf tournaments. Seve fed off the craziness. So did Lanny and Zinger and Poults and the winningest Ryder Cupper of them all, Sergio Garcia. You’d put the U.S. captain in that category, too. In his two Ryder Cup appearances, Bradley was a lightning rod for the Americans.
“I think what I love about the Ryder Cup is I feel like every hole is the last hole of a tournament, so you can kind of let that emotion out,” Bradley said earlier this week. “I think you see a lot of players that play with a lot of emotion play well at Ryder Cups because they don’t have to hold it in. I’m constantly trying to hold it in my whole career. And when you come out in an exciting environment like this, you can let that emotion out and enjoy it, even on the first hole on Friday.”
That moment is coming but it’s not here yet, and in what has been an interminably long week, Thursday is shaping up to be the longest day yet. The forecast calls for thunderstorms, gusty winds and 12 — count ’em, 12 — more press conferences.