What I Hate About The Ryder Cup

Reading through all the blogs posted by Fergus and I over the course of the last week this morning, I sensed a slightly self-congratulatory, ‘I can’t believe we’re actually here’ tone. Well, I’m now going to redress the balance by telling you about all the little annoying things that have got on my wick over the last few days. Here goes:

1. Telecommunications. The two vast televisions in the media centre have no sound so you have to listen to the action through a small handheld radio. The ESPN commentary finds it’s way into your ears about three seconds ahead of the live feed to the big screen. This is means that you know what’s going to happen before you’ve seen it, if you get my drift. This is massively annoying.

2. Some of the US fans. At the start of the week I found the local fans quite charming. They were almost apologetic in their support. Over the last two days however, they’ve become louder and louder and the shouts of ‘You, go get’em Ben’ or ‘It’s all you baby’ are becoming rather tiresome.

3. The pessimism of the UK golf press. As I mentioned in a blog yesterday, it takes something monumental to impress some of the older journalists. Sergio Garcia could shoot 58 this afternoon and you’d still hear a grizzly old British voice say, “well, the course IS ridiculously easy”.

4. The weather. Ok, so I’m not going to get too much sympathy on this one but take it from me, it’s bloomin’ hot out there. After an hour of walking around outside, I return to the media centre with the Batman logo on my back. In more ways than one, this is not cool.

5. Some of the British fans. Sorry, you might not like this one either but there are one or two groups of British men who are treating the Ryder Cup like a Merseyside derby. This is golf, don’t you know. We don’t sing “who are ya? who are ya?”

6. Our luxury roadside accommodation. This week our living quarters are actually far better than we originally expected but the hotel is still situated in the biggest car park I’ve ever seen. There’s no way to cross the main road to find a decent bar and restaurant without calling a cab to take you literally 50 yards away. This is painful.

7. US television. After a long day at the course on Friday, Fergus and I decided to kick back and watch a bit of TV. Bad idea. The only thing we found to watch was a US version of You’ve Been Framed. To be fair, watching extremely fat people fall off pogo sticks was mildly amusing at first but the appalling one-liners from the toothy host was too much to take.

8. The prospect of coming home. On the flight out, Fergus sat in the aisle seat and refused to move for the whole duration. This gave me little option but to remain motionless for 8 hours and 45 minutes. I’m sorry, but that’s just unnatural. And of course, when we do board our flight tomorrow, it will mark the end of this amazing Ryder Cup odyssey. Sorry, couldn’t help that one.