The 2023 Ryder Cup tees off tomorrow (very early in the morning) between Team USA and Team Europe.
For golf fans, this is one of the most high energy and most enjoyable forms of competitive golf. The Ryder Cup, which happens every two years, takes the world’s best golfers and puts them into team competition.
Most of everything in the professional golf world is singles-based competition, so having Team USA and Team Europe pitted against each other in teams is a breath of fresh air every other year.
There have already been plenty of headline-worthy moments from the tournament, and the thing hasn’t even officially started. One of the golfers for Team USA, Sam Burns, was on the toilet when he got the phone call that he would be joining the American Ryder Cup team.
And one of the golfers for Team Europe, Viktor Hovland, made a hole-in-one on a Par 4 during the practice round.
With stories like that before the USA versus Europe competition heats up, the bar is set pretty damn high for the Ryder Cup to surpass the hilarity of that important of a phone call taking place on the can and an improbable hole-in-one.
Getting back to the Ryder Cup itself, the golf is always undoubtedly entertaining, but it’s the fan interaction and participation at the event that raises the tournament above all others.
Imagine the energy at the 16th hole at the Waste Management Open, but on every hole, and with national pride on the line.
Golf fans are usually expected to be quiet and respectful, but at the Ryder Cup, those in attendance are encouraged to get loud and rowdy.
There’s also always a lot of creativity with the chants from the national fans too, which leads us to this “Take Me Home, Country Roads” parody.
A group of USA fans, dressed to the tee (golf pun intended), decided to show their support for their squad by slightly changing up the lyrics to the classic John Denver song, and I’ve got to admit, its pretty catchy:
“Take me home, Ryder Cup, to the place, I belong.
USA, all the way, take me home, Ryder Cup.”
USA! USA! USA!
That got me fired up to wake up at 1 a.m. the next couple of morning to watch some golf (just kidding, I won’t be doing that).
If I were to actually do that though, I’d probably need to fire up John Denver’s version of the song to get in the right mindset for the early-morning competition:
