The Loop

Ryder Cup to tour the country to drum up interest

August 25, 2016
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The engine in the PGA of America’s Ryder Cup hype machine is never idling, but it’s about to kick into high gear in the run-up to the matches at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

For the first time, it will tour the actual cup around the country, part of what it is calling “We Are 13,” the 13 representing U.S. fans as America’s 13th player. The tour’s first stop will be a Golf Galaxy store in Paramus, N.J., next Wednesday.

Oh, the places it will go from there. It will visit, among other sites, the Rose Bowl, Notre Dame Stadium, Wrigley Field, Target Field in Minneapolis and the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, before returning to Europe after the Ryder Cup is played.

OK, just kidding on that last part. Maybe. The U.S. hasn’t won the Ryder Cup since 2008. But we digress.

The cup will make 12 stops in 10 cities and cover 5,000 miles in the process, the PGA of America estimates. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and past U.S. captains Paul Azinger, Ben Crenshaw, Corey Pavin and Tom Lehman will appear at select locations.

Incidentally, it isn’t hyperbole to call it a hype machine. On the Ryder Cup website, hype is acknowledged prominently. Its news of the cup tour is labeled “TROPHY AND HYPE.”