By Martin Dempster
Copyright scotsman
It’s become the most fun-filled bus journey since Cliff Richard travelled on a London double-decker across Europe in the hit 1960s’ film Summer Holiday. Let’s call it ‘Europe’s Ryder Cup Party Bus’, which made its first journey in Rome in 2023 and was back on the road on Long Island in New York on Sunday night, when even some Americans wished they’d been on it. On both occasions, videos captured by Ryder Cup Europe’s social media team of Luke Donald and his players celebrating their triumphs in the biennial event have gone viral. In one posted in the aftermath of Sunday’s 15-13 win over the Americans at Bethpage Black, the bus is absolutely rocking as everyone on it sings ‘Europe’s on Fire, the USA is petrified’ to the tune of Freed From Desire. In another clip, Bob MacIntyre leads a rendition of 500 Miles, the classic hit by The Proclaimers. Dylan Deither, one of the leading US golf journalists, described the videos as “looking like the most fun you could ever have” while Dan Rapaport, a self-confessed “golf sicko”, admitted he “couldn’t get ‘USA is terrified and Europe’s on fire’ out of my head” since seeing that clip. It features a brilliant moment as Tommy Fleetwood turns round to face whoever is filming the clip and sings “oooh” and a huge smile broke out on the Englishman’s face as he recalled Sunday’s journey from Bethpage State Park to the team hotel in Garden City. Speaking as he prepared to tee up along with team-mate Bob MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton and Matthew Fitzpatrick in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Fleetwood said: “The bus ride in Rome was so spontaneous and the best bus ride we’ve ever had. Without mentioning it, I think all of us had an image of that bus ride on the way home from the golf course to the hotel at Bethpage at the end of the week. “There’s so many moments that you can pick beforehand in terms of a vision or as a goal, whether it be someone holing a putt like Shane [Lowry] did to win; you can envision that moment. Or you can envision Luke [Donald] lifting the trophy in the ceremony. But the bus ride was one of those things and you know it’s going to be a high. You know it’s going to feel amazing. So, yeah, we were all looking forward to that journey.” The 2027 contest is at Adare Manor in Ireland, where, unlike Rome or New York, the teams will be staying on site. “It will be tricky,” acknowledged Fleetwood. “We’d need to get one to go around the block for a while. Yeah, it’s a high moment for all. We’re lucky that we have those songs and chants that fit and we can get them going on the bus. It’s an amazing 30-minute ride home.” In reply to being asked who comes up with the songs and who has the worst voice, Fleetwood revealed that Michael Gibbons, a content creator for the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, is at the heart of the fun. “I probably have the worst voice. I’ll put myself at the bottom of that list,” confessed Fleetwood. “The songs? It depends, actually. A lot of times Gibbo is there, he’s at the front. We have a bunch that are universal that keep getting played over and over again.” Once they’d finished on the party bus, Europe partied back at the hotel, where, in another social media video, Lowry was captured up on a table belting out a song with the Ryder Cup in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. It had emerged earlier in the week that the celebrations had ended around 3am, which, in comparison to other European wins in the past – Jamie Donaldson, for example, admitted in a live TV interview early the next morning that he hadn’t been to bed at Gleneagles in 2014 – was a relatively early finish. “Well, I didn’t,” said Fleetwood in reply to being asked if he’d stayed to the end. “I was definitely out of gas, and I left before it finished. It’s not that easy to play a full week of Ryder Cup golf and then try and party all night. It’s just not that easy. “Trevor Nelson was the DJ, and I said to him at 1.30, I’m done and going to bed, I’m so tired. Apparently, they just kept it going. The guys that were there wanted to keep it going. It was a longer night for some than others. But I don’t have the capacity or endurance to last a full night with some of those boys.” What about three-time Dunhill Links winner and this week’s defending champion Hatton, who recently went into graphic detail about how he had a “messy night” on the day he secured automatic qualification for the match and also Legion XIII team-mate Jon Rahm winning the LIV Golf League’s individual title? “I think Indy scared me, to be honest,” he revealed, smiling. “So I was very well behaved, which is very boring for you guys to hear. Yeah, also going into this week, I didn’t want to travel feeling horrendous. Last week takes a lot out of you mentally, physically, and yeah, I didn’t want to feel that bad. So I was very well behaved.” As was Matthew Fitzpatrick. “Yeah, listen, I’m not a drinker. I don’t drink at all,” said the 2022 US Open champion. “It’s not my thing. I don’t like the taste and I certainly don’t like the feeling the next day, that’s for sure. It’s not my thing at all.” Even so, it didn’t stop him having fun along with everyone else on Sunday night and look out for ‘Europe’s Ryder Cup Party Bus’ being revved up again if the trophy is still in ownership on this side of the Atlantic in two years’ time.
