10 Reasons The Ryder Cup Is Better Than The World Cup
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There is no other sporting event quite like it. Here are 10 Reasons The Ryder Cup Is Better Than the World Cup
There is no other sporting event quite like the Ryder Cup. Every two years it serves up drama that is guaranteed to leave you pumping your chest while sitting on the edge of your seat. Here are 10 reasons the Ryder Cup is Better than the World Cup:
1 Short & sharp
Article continues belowThe 2018 World Cup started on June 14th and finished on July 15th. Towards the end of the tournament there are long gaps between games and the momentum is lost. Not so at the Ryder Cup. Three days drama from dawn ‘til dusk.
2 Pure Class
The lowest ranked player at the 2018 Ryder Cup was Thorbjorn Olesen with a world ranking of 45. At Le Golf National, we watched 24 of the best golfers on the planet. With thousands of players competing at the World Cup, it stands to reason that some of those might not be too good!
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3 Team Spirit
There is no bromance like a Ryder Cup bromance. Exhibit A? Moliwood.
4 No Injuries
Five minutes into match one and your country’s only world-class player breaks his leg. Your four-year World Cup odyssey is over. Unless your favourite player at the Ryder Cup falls over getting out of the bath, your chances of getting injured are virtually zero.
5 Spirit Of The Game
Golf is one of the few self-policing sports. As such, the honour of the players lies at the heart of the game. Football, with its ever-expanding group of divers and card-wavers, sits at the opposite end of sports moral spectrum.
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6 Silence
The tension created when 7,000 fans fall silent around a 10 yard square patch of grass is spine-tingling. Grenades of sound burst through that silence creating a sporting atmosphere like no other.
7 Anyone can beat anyone
The beauty of golf, not just the Ryder Cup, is that even the best player in the world tends not win more four or five tournaments a year. This relatively low winning percentage means that any player can easily beat any other on any given day. When every match can throw up an underdog winner, the excitement never fades. How many points did Tiger Woods win in Paris?
8 Tactics
One of the appeals of football is the simplicity but when it comes to winning football matches your tactical options are limited to a handful. At the Ryder Cup, there are a variety of different ways to find an edge. The captain needs to unearth his best pairings considering their personalities and their strengths and weaknesses, the opponents and the course.
9 No VAR
Enough said.
No such thing as 0-0
In football, a 0-0 draw is often a snooze-fest. A half in a golf match is the most exciting result. With both teams able to win it on the final green, the tension is unbearable.
In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he went on to become a feature writer interviewing many of the biggest names in the game including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Arnold Palmer.
A 5-handicap golfer, Neil is a club member who takes a keen interest in the health of the game at grassroots level. You’ll often now find him writing about club-related issues such as WHS, membership retention and how best to bridge the gap between the range and the course.