Some golfer’s life will change at the Ryder Cup

What a brutal week this is, brimming with anticipation, moving just like any other week, with so little to distract us beyond … video of Tyrrell Hatton pausing his swing because someone farted. 

Yep, that’s where we’re at, here on the eve of the eve of the Ryder Cup — perhaps the biggest event in the sport. Like December 23, or Masters Tuesday, all there is to do is dream about what’s coming. Which brings us to a rather sentimental thought, amid the goofy videos and emails about which brands are activating around Bethpage Black: 

Someone’s life is going to change next week. We don’t know who, but we know it’ll happen for someone. In ways good, of course, but possibly not so good as well. 

The reason is obvious: the Ryder Cup is just so damn big. Bigger than any other non-Masters golf event. Bigger than the Solheim Cup and Presidents Cup and Walker Cup combined. Big because it happens only every other year, and big because it goes almost exclusively to the world’s biggest cities. The stage is massive … literally! Golfers are rarely on stages, but they will be during the welcome ceremony, in formal attire, or the Wednesday night gala, in even more formal attire. Fighter jets flew over that stage on the eve of the last Cup, just like those anxious minutes before the Rose Bowl.

Between team camaraderie, respect from peers and the increased, incensed platform, the Ryder Cup offers some magic elixir that tends to unlock a golfer’s potential. Bob MacIntyre was on the brink of tears during the 2023 Cup in Rome, unsure if he really belonged. He didn’t know what to make of the Cup beforehand, but after an undefeated week with his name being rhymed into European sing-songs, he was convinced: “This is the reason I play golf.” He’s become a world-class player since. 

Last weekend, Scottie Scheffler comfortably admitted he was undoubtedly the 12th man on the American side in 2021. The ultimate endorsement came from captain Steve Stricker, but was a proxy for quieter endorsements from the rest of the team. Scheffler belonged, they thought, forcing us to wonder what might have happened if he was left off the squad. That was four years and 19 Tour wins ago, when he was sent out in the third singles match against Jon Rahm, then the best player in the world. On paper, Scheffler looked like a sacrificial lamb, but he toppled Rahm 4 and 3 that day and has played Tiger Woods-like golf ever since. 

Patrick Reed’s life changed during Ryder Cup week in 2018, when he became so disgruntled that he decided to air his grievances with the New York Times rather than with captain Jim Furyk privately. It likely cost him a spot on the next Cup team. He hasn’t played in the event since. 

Chris Wood was a Ryder Cupper in 2016, reporting for duty under Darren Clarke, but Clark sat him the entire first day at Hazeltine. He played just two matches, won one of them, and proceeded to completely lose his game in the years since. We’re not talking correlation or causation here — rather, we’re talking about a player who has been tantalized by that peak ever since. He’s been diagnosed with chronic anxiety, and has been wonderfully vulnerable in talking about it. But that Cup sits in the back of his mind. 

“It’s hard because I still believe I’ve even got a Ryder Cup in me,” Wood said 12 months ago in a press release for a sponsor’s exemption he earned to an Asian Tour event in Thailand. “I truly believe that, and I wouldn’t still be putting myself in positions where I feel anxious and exposed unless I felt like it’s going to be worth it.”

Hunter Mahan’s most famous moments happened at the Ryder Cup.

The lasting image of Boo Weekley’s legend? It’s sticking that driver shaft between his legs and galloping down a tee box at Valhalla.

Thomas Pieters went 4-1 as a 24-year-old rookie and has never quite topped that moment since. 

What’s the first thing people think about when it comes to Ryan Moore? Probably that he rallied onto the 2016 American side and made the clinching putt.

Nicolas Colsaerts bagged a couple top 10s in majors but will forever be known for the one Ryder Cup match he won. He got dragged by Dustin Johnson in singles and lost the final three matches of his 2012 week at Medinah, but will forever be remembered for those eight birdies and an eagle on Friday afternoon when he stole a point off Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker. Europe won 14.5-13.5.

The future of 24 players and a handful of captains won’t be entirely decided next week — some of this stuff takes time. But these performances can become rain clouds that follow players for years. Rickie Fowler’s Ryder Cup malaise was built over five Cups and has amounted to a grisly 3-9-5 record. How differently would you feel about him if he had Patrick Cantlay’s 5-2-1 tally? As a player, Zach Johnson led a very respectable Cup career, but who remembers that now? His reputation, at least among golf fans, was forever adjusted by defeat in Italy. (Luke Donald’s major-less career, similarly, has held a different sheen since that week, too.)

It feels a touch inhumane and certainly reductive to rattle off this group of lifetime golfing elites with just their biannual team golf exploits. Their careers were of course far greater than these few, singular moments. But that is what the Ryder Cup does, with millions more watching than tuned in for the PGA Championship in May, or the Open Championship in July. If anyone in next week’s field doesn’t realize it now, they will soon after. It’s a big part of what makes the event so great. And what makes this week feel like it’s just creeping along.

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