MEDINAH, Ill. — “Let’s be savages for everybody this week!”
When U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker uttered those words on the first tee late Thursday morning at Medinah Country Club before the first tee shots of the 16th Presidents Cup, the initial thought from this corner was, “You had two years and that’s what you came up with?” The second was, “Sheesh, read the room.”
A year ago, American golf fans did become the very definition of the word savages during the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. They were “wild, untamed and brutally cruel” in going far beyond cheering for their side, instead yelling abusive things at the European players and wives. A first-tee announcer stepped down after leading a vulgar chant against Rory McIlroy and PGA of America president Don Rea Jr. was ousted, in part, for downplaying the fans’ behavior.
It was embarrassing and ugly and left a bad taste in the mouths of fans who love the tension and rewards of team competition but have no interest in rooting for a hockey fight to break out on the golf course.
That’s why this year’s Presidents Cup looked to be the palette cleanser the game needed. This particular match has always been more like watching your 8-year-old’s jujitsu class than an MMA fight. The Internationals have recorded just one victory, 28 years ago, unable to muster the depth that the American squads possess.
They have enough going against them, and then Snedeker—always viewed as the aw-shucks Opie Taylor of the PGA Tour—goes for the throat on Day 1 by imploring the villagers to take to Medinah with torches.
Not really, of course, but it was just a very odd tone to set when team golf was supposed to return to some sense of civility.
The truth is that Snedeker’s “plea” fell mostly flat, with the loudest "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants produced when a fleet of helicopters flew overhead. Everybody loves a good air show. And, truly, how can anybody get overly worked up when Carl Spackler himself, Chicago icon Bill Murray, brings out the huge and very gold Presidents Cup trophy?
Actor Bill Murray "drinks" from the Presidents Cup at the opening ceremony.
James Gilbert
Some fans were more fired up than others. Kurt Batten had a front-row seat on the first tee and was decked out in a Stars-and-Stripes golf shirt he bought on Amazon. Batten came in from Kansas City and got passes from the CEO of his company, who is a Medinah member, and was warned, “You better have some good patriotic clothing.”
“I’m getting a lot of compliments on it,” Batten proudly said of his shirt.
Describing himself as a big golf fan, Batten loudly cheered as the American players were introduced, but he wasn’t ragging the Internationals. He did, however, say that he thought how the fans behaved at Bethpage was just fine.
“The way it should be,” Batten said. “I just think everybody is crazy. It’s kinda like the Waste Management [in Phoenix], everybody should be allowed to go nuts and scream and yell and have a good time. It’s not like a normal golf tournament. It’s more like a hockey game.”
Ironically, another fan who was actually wearing a hockey jersey had a differing opinion. Steve Harry, from the Chicago suburb of Oswego, snapped up Presidents Cup tickets as soon as they went on sale and was at Medinah on Thursday with his regular golf buddy, Matt Lowe. They stood out at the ropes at the eighth hole, with Lowe wearing flag overalls and Harry donning the USA hockey sweater of Olympics hero Jack Hughes.
The two said that when they got on the shuttle bus to the course in the morning, they felt a bit out of place as the only people with American gear on. “We thought, ‘Oh boy, we’re going to stand out like a sore thumb.’ But at the first tee one lady was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, so we’re not completely oddballs here.”
Matt Lowe (left) and Steve Harry dressed in U.S. colors to cheer on the U.S. while admiring the talent of the players on the International team. (Tod Leonard)
Harry said he did wonder what the atmosphere would be like coming to the Presidents Cup after Bethpage.
“I'll be honest, it was a little embarrassing watching kind of some of the stuff that happened at Ryder Cup, in my opinion,” Harry said. “So as much as I wanted to be a team guy and support the team and be out here and cheer, I didn't want it to be over the edge.”
Harry believed that Midwesterners would show up in a different way this week, and that certainly appeared to be the case on Thursday in the early going. First, the crowd was sizable—far more than two years ago at Royal Montreal—with the first hole nearly encircled with fans. As some tell it, they are pro golf-starved in Chicagoland, and beyond some LIV Golf events in the past few years, America’s third-largest city doesn’t get to see the stars very often. (The PGA Tour is looking to change that.)
Among the early groups, the gallery seemed to cheer like they do in any other PGA Tour event, with no nasty comments or yells during shots. Even the players’ wives were lightly guarded inside the ropes after someone threw a cup of beer at Rory McIlroy’s wife at Bethpage.
When the Internationals’ Ryo Hisatsune missed a short putt at the second to lose the hole, there were just a couple of obligatory groans.
“Be respectful of the players; be respectful of the game,” Harry said. “It’s like Tuesday night golf league—if somebody else makes an amazing putt, you give them a high five. We have kids and want them to grow up knowing that golf is a gentleman’s game. Root for your team, but you don’t have to be obnoxious about it. … It’s like watching Tom Kim or Min Woo Lee; they’re good players. But as much as I want to see the USA win, I don’t want to make them feel like they never want to come back here again.”
Harry said he relishes team golf and that motivated him to attend a couple of LIV events. He knows the Ryder Cup has a much larger stature in the game but enjoys the Presidents Cup as something of a warm-up events for players who could become future U.S. team stalwarts.
The talk of the Presidents Cup going away or being replaced has run rampant of late. Some observers believe PGA Tour CEO and commissioner Brian Rolapp is looking closely at an event whose results are so one-sided that it brings long-term viability into question.
Tens of thousands of fans at Medinah and more than a million watching on TV on the weekend might differ. For better or worse, not every team event needs to look and sound like the Ryder Cup, though an International win would certainly help.
So how about just enjoying the Presidents Cup for what it is and the savages can stay home.