Ryder Cup mania becoming a sure bet worldwide
By LORNE RUBENSTEIN
Toronto Globe and Mail
It's hard to believe that not until 1989 was the Ryder Cup
televised in North America when the matches were played overseas.
But now, as the 32nd Ryder Cup is set to begin Friday at the Valderrama
Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain, the event has become a vast worldwide
event with all the requisite hype; and even plenty that isn't
requisite.
For one thing, there is no end to the variety of wagering available.
Ladbrokes, the British betting agent, is citing odds on either
the U.S. or European side winning and on top point scorers among
the 12 players on each side. There are odds on the final score
as well.
And as the pairings are made all sorts of exotic wagers will
become available. For now, the U.S. side is favored 4 to 9. Anybody
betting on the United States will get the $9 wager back, should
the United States win, along with $4 in winnings.
The odds on the European side are 2 to 1. Tiger Woods is favored
to be the big point man for the United States, at 3 to 1, with
Colin Montgomerie, the European favorite at 7 to 2.
If you think the United States will win by six points, you
can get 12 to 1 on that; if you favor the European side by the
same score, you will get 33 to 1.
That there is wagering is not new, as there has always been
interest in Britain in particular. But the volume of discourse
about these odds has increased tremendously in the United States
and Canada. The golf talk at clubs and events shows that.
The interest in wagering reflects the degree to which the Ryder
Cup has become golf's fifth major event. U.S. Ryder Cup captain
Tom Kite was saying recently that while he has relished his appointment
and consequent involvement, it has consumed him and almost been
too much.
"When it's all over, I'm going to feel like a parent whose
kids have all gone off to college," Kite said. "I'll
have all this spare time to fill."
Then Kite added, "But I won't mind that."
The extent to which the Ryder Cup has become a gigantic international
affair is manifest in the worldwide television coverage. Sky Sports
in Britain started its coverage on Monday with the arrival of
the teams in Spain. Its coverage will culminate on Sunday with
eight hours of the final day's singles matches. And then Sky will
have a three-hour post-event show Monday night.
Coverage in the United States began with NBC's one-hour Ryder
Cup special last Saturday. The USA network will have 10 hours
of delayed coverage of Friday's opening matches. NBC will have
six hours on Saturday and 4 1-2 hours of live coverage on Sunday.
But the growth of the Ryder Cup can be truly seen elsewhere.
There is extensive coverage in Spain, where the Ryder Cup is being
played for the first time; it doesn't hurt interest there that
the European captain is Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, one fiery fellow.
The event is also being carried live in Belgium, Denmark, France,
Germany, Iceland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand
and South Africa. Highlights will air in Greece and Abu Dhabi.
Given the level of interest, it is hardly surprising the players
feel the glare. Golfers are playing not only for themselves and
their own pride but are representing their countries.
The Ryder Cup is the true Olympics of professional golf, though
it does not by its rules include such golfers as Greg Norman,
Ernie Els, Steve Elkington and Nick Price, who are not from the
United States or Europe.
Olympics or not, every player does not necessarily enjoy the
global interest in the Ryder Cup that leads to their being put
under a microscope.
"I always said we should really start thinking of the
Ryder Cup on Sept. 1, when we (Europe) pick the team, and that's
it," European team member Nick Faldo said recently. "Amazingly,
it's talked about more than Tiger. Can it be bigger than Tiger?
Geez."
The Ryder Cup has gone from being a competition of interest
to the participants to one that grabs golfers and golf fans everywhere.
This is so much the case that players huddle with their team captains
over the competition long before it is to begin, and then become
almost obsessed with it as Ryder Cup week approaches.
Canadian Open winner Steve Jones said he was not able to relax
and just play golf until the qualifying period for the Ryder Cup
had passed in August and he had not made the team. Brad Faxon
did make the team and visited Kite last week at the captain's
home in Austin.
That is another indication of how seriously the players take
the Ryder Cup.
"We discussed pairings and who I'd like to play with and
who he's thinking about putting together," Faxon said the
other day. "Of course, that's top secret and there's no way
I can tell you. Actually, he's choking so bad he doesn't know,
either."
Faxon made those comments as part of a diary he is writing
for an Internet site. The amount of Ryder Cup information available
on the Internet, by the way, is staggering.
"The fact Europe has become competitive has changed the
whole mood of the event," Faldo said. "We've won more
than the Americans (since 1985). And I think this one's going
to be bigger than ever.
"But that doesn't mean it's exactly going to be fun. There's
no fun in the Ryder Cup from a player's perspective. It's a sadistic
kind of fun. It's the hardest three days of golf that we have,
period."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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