US officials hoping for 'greatest Ryder Cup in history'
US officials hope to stage the ‘greatest Ryder Cup in history’ with a daily crowd of 50,000 including 5,000 fans from Europe at Whistling Straits
- Ryder Cup will take place in September before a daily capacity crowd of 50,000
- PGA chief executive Waugh expects a travel corridor to be in place in September
- Tickets were sold out long before decision to opt for a 12-month postponement
The Ryder Cup will take place in Wisconsin in September before a daily capacity crowd of 50,000 people and be the ‘exclamation point that signals the end of the pandemic’.
That is the confident prediction of Seth Waugh, chief executive of the PGA of America, the organisation who run the event on US soil and who are also staging the US PGA Championship this week, with a restricted daily audience of 10,000.
Waugh’s belief is centred on the success of the vaccination programme in America.
US officials want to deliver a ‘full fan experience’ at the Ryder Cup in September
‘Our plan is to have the greatest Ryder Cup in history and a full fan experience,’ he said.
‘The world, as we have seen, is ready to have a party. The Olympics is going to happen, it looks like, but not in the way that you hope it would. And so this is going to be the first major sporting event where you can really cheer for your country, in person anyway, and we’ll have that tribal atmosphere that is so important.
‘We’re hopeful the Ryder Cup will be a great exclamation point to the end of this thing. We think it’s all going to happen fast from a US perspective. I realise the world has a lot of challenges, but from our perspective we’re really hopeful we can pull it off.’
Tickets for the event at Whistling Straits were sold out long before the decision was taken last year to opt for a 12-month postponement.
The event at Whistling Straits was postponed last year because fans were unable to attend
Waugh clearly expects there to be a travel corridor in place by September, for it certainly would not be a full fan experience without the noisy 5,000-strong contingent from Europe.
As for the Olympics, Lee Westwood has ruled out an appearance in Tokyo this summer at the age of 48.
The Englishman is just outside the qualifying spots at present, but made it clear when outlining his schedule that he is more interested in cementing his place in the Ryder Cup.
World No 1 Dustin Johnson has also ruled himself out, and more withdrawals are anticipated.
The men’s golf event in Tokyo takes place a week after the Open and just before the lucrative FedEx Cup play-offs in America, with masses of Ryder Cup qualifying points.
‘The schedule is so crammed around that time and going to Japan with all that is going on would be a bad idea for me,’ said Westwood.
‘I can’t play seven events in eight weeks anymore.’
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