‘There’s No Way To Stay Calm’ - Ryder Cup Players Describe The Toughest Tee Shot In Golf

Just what is it about the first tee at the Ryder Cup that can reduce the best golfers on the planet into quivering wrecks barely able to remember how to play a game they’ve been masters of?

The sights and sounds are familiar to us all, the constant chanting and singing gives way to a thunderous ovation when the players emerge from over a bridge, through a tunnel - however it’s set up that year.

Once the crowd settles, the customary photographs are taken on the tee box and then, unless Bubba Watson is playing, the crowd goes silent - it’s then that nerves, adrenaline, even blind panic courses through the veins as the enormity of the situation hits.

Yes, mere mortals will hear the songs, feel the noise and be riddled with the nerves and excitement of another Ryder Cup match about to get underway, but we’ll never know what the monumental stress of having to put that little white ball on a tee peg and then try to hit it feels like.

Schauffele filled with nerves

“You don’t realize what it does to your body and your brain,” Xander Schauffele told Sports Illustrated. “It is one of the most nerve-wracking shots.

“There’s no way to stay calm with a bunch of people yelling and super loud noise. You know what’s on the line. At the end of the day, it’s not a big deal. But at that moment, it feels like a very big deal.”

And Schauffele has a novel way of dealing with it, instead of trying to prepare something special – embrace the chaos.

“I don’t even try (to prepare). I just look forward to it. You get excited about it, and you embrace it. You’ve seen guys get the crowd pumped up while they hit. It’s really up to you, and whatever makes you tick.”

Simpson skies one in 2014

Webb Simpson was first man out on Friday morning at Gleneagles in 2014 - the ultimate nervy position of nervy positions – and produced one of the most infamous first shots of recent times when he sent a moon ball high into the Scottish skies and only just about made the fairway.

Simpson calls it “the pop up” as he described a shot that made the rest of his team wince a little – and made Justin Rose change his club selection, allegedly!

“So the backstory, why it's even funnier to me, but that was a shot I had in my bag all year,” said Simpson. “It was, like, the fifth time I had done it. 

“I was losing my concentration a little bit and I teed it up a little too high, and I had done it a few other times that year. Usually it goes straight down, that one went straight up and hit the fairway. 

“I will say - Justin Rose might not admit it - but he had a 3-wood out, and I looked over and he switched to driver because the driver's so much bigger. So maybe my shot affected him.”

Reed runs out of oxygen

Patrick Reed, who also lofted his tee shot at Gleneagles, says he has found it hard to breathe when facing the first at the Ryder Cup.

“It felt like all the oxygen was sucked out of the area,” Reed said. “It was the hardest tee shot I’ve ever hit in my life even though it was just a 3-wood with a wide fairway. It was brutal.

“There’s nothing like it. There is no situation in the game where you will have that much pressure on you. You’re playing for the captain, your teammates, for the flag, for your country, and it gets to you.

“After I hit my shot, Jordan was laughing. I said, ‘Bud, please hit a better one than I did.’ I think he was feeling the nerves, but when he saw me sky it, I think that settled him down. I mean he probably thought he couldn’t hit it any worse than I did. And after he stopped laughing, he hit a great tee shot.”

Spieth can't even remember what happened properly on that first tee at Gleneagles.

“Maybe I was laughing, I don’t remember. But I do remember it was the most nerve-wracking shot I’ve ever hit, so his shot definitely didn’t calm me down,” Spieth said. “I was so nervous getting ready to hit my shot that I don’t remember what anybody else did on the first hole.

“It’s something you never forget. It was my first time in an away arena. And it was something like 40 degrees, fog rising, and you hear the echoes of the roars and all the chants, and the sun has just come up in Scotland.

“You’re thinking, what am I about to walk into?”

Rory McIlroy is now a veteran of the Ryder Cup, but knows full well what it's like for that first time.

“There’s nothing like walking onto that first tee for the first time and feeling that rush and just soaking in the atmosphere,” said McIlroy.

“That’s what I’ve tried to sort of reiterate to the rookies. It’s like, you think you know what it’s like and you think you’ve played under pressure, but you haven’t.

“You haven’t played under what this is going to be like.”

Ryder Cup first tee - What they said...

Rickie Fowler: “It’s scary."

Steve Stricker: "It’s the most nerve-wracking moment of your golf career."

Jose Maria Olazabal: “Anybody who doesn’t feel his legs trembling must be a dead man.”

Thomas Bjorn: “You basically have no idea what you’re doing on the first tee. You can’t do it quickly enough. Anyone who says they weren’t nervous on that first tee is lying. It’s dreadful and amazing at the same time – unforgettable.”

Padraig Harrington: “I couldn’t even see the golf ball. I was just so nervous, I couldn’t even see it. Eventually you’re standing over it and you’re like, ‘Well I’ve just got to go, I’ve got to hit it.’ Thankfully I hit a good shot.”

Ian Poulter: “It’s a daunting position to be in. I think every player has said it through the years that there is no bigger pressure tee shot in golf than the first one in the Ryder Cup. The build-up, the buzz, who you are playing for. All that kind of comes to a head and you have to pony up and hit one down the middle.”

Paul Azinger: "It’s like going to the dentist for a root canal and learning they just ran out of Novocaine. At the Ryder Cup, from the very first shot, there is nowhere to hide.”

Justin Rose: “There’s really nothing that can prepare you for it. It’s something where you just have to suck in a little bit of air and do your best. And it seems each Ryder Cup since has gotten bigger and they try to outdo the next so that first tee has become a thing. It’s like a living, growing kind of beast.”

Justin Thomas: “It was hands down the most nervous I’ve ever been. The pressure, it’s a privilege; you want to be able to feel that, and if you didn’t feel that, I mean, then there would be no reason for me or any of us to be playing."

Scottie Scheffler: “I would say that the Ryder Cup is the most pressure that I’ve ever felt as a golfer. When I stepped up on the first tee in the first match, I literally could not feel my arms, and I’ve been really nervous before, and I was really nervous at the Masters, but I could still feel my arms.”