Handling whatever atmosphere develops will be key to European Ryder Cup hopes
United States captain Keegan Bradley and Team Europe Captain Luke Donald during a press conference at the Bethpage Black ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.
The 6.16am LIRR to Ronkonkoma shuddered its way out of Penn Station on the dot. No sleepy stragglers breaking from waddle to sprint, no arms desperately stretched to keep sliding doors from meeting.
The Long Island Railroad has been around for 200 years so the tracks are well travelled. The journey under and out of Manhattan into Queens was smooth and serene. Sparse too. It stayed that way as city boundaries gave way to Long Island. How long is Long? About 190km in all but Monday morning’s commute took us just 40km across it.
As a burning red then candy floss pink sky welcomed the week’s first sun, travellers disembarking at Farmingdale station (peculiarly, it’s closer to Bethpage State Park than the actual Bethpage station) were vastly outnumbered by those about to get on the train pulling up to the opposite platform. And that’s what makes Ryder Cup Monday a total contrast to the six days which follow. For one day only the masses were going the wrong way. When the sun rises again Tuesday all will change utterly.
Bright yellow railings snaking across the station car park, empty pens for now, provided a sign of what’s coming. Not that either team captain needed one. Both Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald appeared to be savouring the solemnity that Bethpage Black’s rolling green provided Monday. When the gates do open Tuesday one of the great unknowns and arguably one of the most pressing concerns of the 45th Ryder Cup will begin to reveal itself.
More than any renewal in recent European or American memory, the fan factor has become the fear factor of this year’s matches. “Will Bethpage be a breaking point for fan behavior?” asked Golf Digest this weekend. In their more contemplative moments, both captains would appear to at least be considering that possibility.
Their first official appearance of tournament week was a joint affair Monday afternoon as the rays poured down outside the clubhouse. Perched either side of the gleaming little piece of gold at stake here, Donald and Bradley engaged in a pitch-perfect pillow fight. They took turns telling us how much they respected one another, how long they have been friends and have exchanged texts of raging positivity, how the thing they look forward to most of all is the drink they will share on Sunday night. Easy lads, we’re not bringing ye home to the grandparents.
It was a soft, safely diplomatic tone they were always going to set, especially in such close confines. On one brief query around atmosphere they focused only on positives.
“It really is an environment that you want to experience as a player, [there’s] nothing quite like it,” said Donald. “These guys embrace that. They thrive in it. They're looking forward to hearing the noise out there.” “I really enjoy the atmosphere that happens at Ryder Cups and can't wait to see the one here in New York,” chimed Bradley.
For one day, he and everyone else had to wait. With nothing else to compete with the decibels droned down from flights in and out of nearby JFK, it was left to Bryson DeChambeau to pierce the air the only way he knows how. The most compelling character of this American team, DeChambeau stepped up on the tee box of the 1st hole, a 397-yard dogleg par four which shouldn’t be reachable but, for him and maybe a select few others, is. He detonated a bomb towards the green.
Should the same situation occur Friday morning to get this whole show on the road, the roars will rumble all the way back into Manhattan. It’s the noise that follows that has many concerned.
At the front gates here the all-caps sign reads “Welcome to Bethpage State Park, the People’s Country Club”. Nice. But not country club people. Which has the golf set on edge. New York crowds are not boisterous but bawdy. Relentless boos were the soundtrack to the sporting weekend here, the city’s NFL Giants and Jets both beaten out the gate again. The Mets, baseball’s biggest spenders, are imploding and hearing all about it too.
Donald and his staff have deployed VR headsets to prepare Europe’s players for the vitriol they may face. In less diplomatic mode on Sunday, he raised the possibility of that energy being turned on the host nation by local galleries.
“We all know how high the ticket prices are,” he said. “If the US players are getting paid…and they aren’t performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it.” The Trump factor looms large in this too. When some wonder whether the jingoistic ugliness of Kiawah Island and 1991’s War by the Shore could reappear in a Battle of Bethpage, much of that is down to this societal moment. America may not be engaged in overt overseas conflict but is certainly in some semblance of a war — with itself.
Security will be significant and European players, including Rory McIlroy will have their own detail as will their families. Handling whatever atmosphere develops will be essential to European hopes.
That Donald pointed to the cost of tickets as a factor was apt too. Those trains heading the opposite direction in to Manhattan Monday carried many to its financial heart. The eye-watering cost of tickets for this week has, according to the Golf Digest debate, some “worried the cost will attract Wall Street crowds known for excessive celebration”. Charge of the finance bro brigade. Splendid.
From the station on up to Bethpage’s gates, the serenity will disappear Tuesday. Slowly but then surely. For better or worse, the People’s Country Club will be heard.
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