Pride, camaraderie, sportsmanship: What the Ryder Cup means

Something bigger than yourself. The best feeling in the world. The proudest moment of my golfing life.

Those are the words spoken by past and present Captain’s and players to describe exactly what it means to earn the honour of teeing up in the Ryder Cup.

In his press conference on Tuesday, U.S. Captain Zach Johnson called it “one of the best spectacles in sport.”

For all those that get to experience it, the Ryder Cup provides a unique melting pot of sportsmanship, history, nerves, excitement and special camaraderie.

Egos are left at the door of the team rooms, which are themselves emblazoned with motivational quotes from players of past teams aiming to inspire players new and old.

Antonio Garrido once said that “the excitement that comes with the Ryder Cup is something that cannot be explained, you have to be there.”

In a similar vein, Johnson added that it’s something only a lucky group are able to experience.

“Some of the veterans have spoken about it, obviously, and some of the Vice Captains and myself. I mean, I'm very confident in saying that I think; I haven't been to every massive or, you know, high-weighted sporting event, but I would say it's one of the best spectacles in sports.

“I think if you can understand that not many people get that opportunity, that's a pretty awesome opportunity. So relish it, savour it, want it, embrace it, all of that. Knowing it's not going to be easy, but at the same time you can kind of flip that. You can kind of flip it mentally and say this is where I belong, and there's a reason why it's big, because this is the best sporting event in the game of golf.”

Those sentiments are certainly true for Rory McIlroy.

By the end of his very first week at Celtic Manor in 2010, the four-time Major winner had declared it “the best week of my life, this is the best event in golf by far."

Those quotes were in stark contrast to the now infamous ones he had spoken less than a year prior, when he had called the Ryder Cup ‘not important’ and ‘an exhibition’.

“It's not that important an event for me, it's an exhibition at the end of the day,” McIlroy said in 2009.

“Obviously I'll try my best for the team, but I'm not going to go running around fist-pumping.”

They have somewhat humorously followed him around since, a juxtaposition to the hatless, roaring McIlroy who plays off the crowd with hands to his ears, big fist pumps, and even tears – which freely flowed during Europe’s landslide loss to the U.S. in Whistling Straits.

Call him converted. He calls his old self naïve.

In a video for the Ryder Cup, McIlroy read his old comments out loud before laughing at himself as he explained just how much the Ryder Cup has come to mean to him, and why he hopes he never feels the disappointment he experienced in Wisconsin two years ago.

“I said that in my naivety as a young swashbuckling lad,” he said.

“I know, I have been a part of the Ryder Cup a lot and what those three quotes couldn't be further from the truth. Obviously, I had watched Ryder Cups on TV. I cheered for the European team and I'd played team golf before, but it's just a completely different environment once you get in there, seeing how much it means to everyone.

“It's the purest competition in golf. To me, it, it doesn't get any better than that. You can't replicate that feeling of playing as part of a team and winning and feeling like you've contributed in some way and you've done it for other people, not just yourself.

“I remember that afternoon in Chicago in 2012, and the, the emotions and the, the like. When you finish your match and you're watching the others come in, like that churn in your stomach of watching other guys trying to get it in. Seeing Martin Kaymer hole that winning put in Medinah, his like, like I didn't do anything, but it was one of the best feelings in the world.

“Only can you get those moments in Ryder Cups. I, you know, there's no other place that we can experience something like that.

“Win loser, draw. Ryder Cup weeks are always amazing and you form bonds that hopefully will last a lifetime and, you know, you get to know people on a different level and that's, that's wonderful. Losing the Ryder Cup and having to wait two years to win it back is at the start. The most disappointed you're ever going to feel.

“But I do not want to feel like that after Ryder Cup ever again. I think the whole European Ryder Cup Team's going to carry that disappointment of Whistling Straits into Rome and, and we're going to be better because of it. As much as the stupid quotes that I said earlier in my career, like, everyone should strive to be a part of the Ryder Cup. It's the best feeling in the world. Um, everyone hopefully will, will win individual titles and, and do great things in the game as an individual, but nothing beats the feeling as, as winning a Ryder Cup of, you know, as a part of that team.”

His perspective is far from unique. In their respective ‘My Ryder Cup videos’, former Captains Thomas Bjørn and Sam Torrance were not lacking for superlatives to describe their love for the Ryder Cup.

“There is really no feeling like it in golf,” said Bjørn, who played his first of three Ryder Cups in 1997 and captained the European side to victory at Le Golf National in 2018.

“You crave that team room environment, that special feeling of sharing of success with others. To be part of that whole process made me realise I’d made huge strides in my career. There is really no feeling like it in golf.”

Sam Torrance holed the winning putt in 1985, and then Captained the winning side in 2002.

“Egos are left at the door. There’s no one better than anyone else. That’s it, basically. It’s bigger than any event in golf. 1985 changed my life.”

Describing his captaincy, Torrance said: "Quite simply, the proudest moment of my golfing career. The greatest week of my golfing life, by far. Nothing comes close."

It's why players who have experienced the Ryder Cup in the past are so desperate to be part of it, perfectly exampled by the palpable relief Justin Thomas shared about being picked by Johnson.

“I had a lot of emotions that came through me, I would say, as wild it is, like relief was one of the first things of just -- I could relax,” he said, as he explained the atmosphere is exactly why he wants to be here.

“I have had a lot, a lot of sleepless nights of just thinking about what could happen and wanting to be on the team and wondering if I was, if I wasn't. Then I just kind of came to the realization that obviously it was out of my hands and I couldn't do anything about it, and then after getting the call yesterday from Zach, I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited. It was kind of ironic.

“I'm very, very happy to be here. I mean, it's exciting. It's a type of nerves that I don't think you can really put into words, and us that have experienced it, especially over there, can understand. It's butterflies but it's good butterflies. It's all the nerves that we are playing for. It's why we play professional golf is to be in these kind of atmospheres.”

There really isn't another week quite like the Ryder Cup.