Jim Souhan: What not to do when the Ryder Cup comes to Hazeltine

Jim Souhan, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 30, 2025

Published in Golf

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MINNEAPOLIS — Dublin and London – The phrase kept resurfacing, like a Shakespearean turn of phrase or a limerick: “Gentle slagging.”

Early last week, in the pro shop at the Elm Park Golf Club in Dublin, assistant pro Eric Byrne said that Europeans preferred “gentle slagging” to the screamed vulgarities favored by too many U.S. Ryder Cup fans.

As the Ryder Cup played out on television screens in pubs around Dublin last weekend, the Europeans spent Friday and Saturday dominating and late Sunday celebrating. The Irish people surrounding so many American tourists never even resorted to “gentle slagging” — a friendly form of teasing.

They would cheer when a big putt went in. In the pub area of the Clayton Ballsbridge Hotel late Sunday night, when Irish hero Shane Lowry made the Cup-clinching putt, there was polite applause, none of it aimed at the many American football fans watching nearby.

Lowry’s reaction to his clincher also told a story. He didn’t gesture toward the fans who cursed and ridiculed him all week. He hadn’t choreographed an angry or nationalistic celebration. He leapt with joy, not sure exactly what to do with his extremities.

The Ryder Cup needs more civility, and more joy.

What we witnessed at Bethpage Black is similar to what we witnessed at Hazeltine National in 2016: Disgusting behavior by the American crowd.

The temptation is to say that such behavior doesn’t belong on any golf course for any reason, but we just witnessed a massive influx of Vikings and Steelers fans into Dublin and Croke Park. These rivals drank and dined in the same pubs, walked the same streets, shared the same stands, and I never heard a single negative word.

Football is a violent sport created to highlight head-to-head conflict and stir tribal loyalties, yet the thousands of football fans I encountered behaved more than civil.

Golf fans should be able to muster a smidgen of decency when hosting Europe on American soil, and the braintrust in charge of running the Hazeltine Ryder Cup should legislate decency.

Ryder Cup tickets are expensive. Any fan who directs personal insults at European players, or screams during backswings, or uses vulgarity loud enough to be heard on the course, should be immediately ejected. Start throwing people out on Friday morning, and the problem will be solved.

What’s sad is that you can’t legislate decency, or joy.

The Americans typically treat the Ryder Cup as a military battle to be won. This year’s U.S. captain, Keegan Bradley, was seen on a video after he was named to his post saying that the U.S. would “kick” Europe’s rear.

The Euros tend to play for each other. The results of this Cup, a 15-13 victory for Europe, bolstered stereotypes about the teams. The Euros won the paired competitions, 11.5-4.5. The American won the singles matches, 10.5-5.5.

The competition may have swung on two factors:

— Scottie Scheffler, by far the best golfer in the world, went 0-4 on Friday and Saturday.

— According to the analytical website Data Golf, the worst possible American pairing was Colin Morikawa and Harris English. Bradley played them together twice. Twice they lost.

Here’s a plan for the Americans heading into Adare Manor, in Limerick, Ireland, in 2027, and Hazeltine in 2029:

— Hire a captain who can combine the right kind of competitive fire with an analytical approach. Not Bradley.

— Eject the idiotic American fans, who, by the way, only seemed to galvanize the European pairings.

— Remember that the Ryder Cup was created to celebrate golf, not sow division.

The 1969 Ryder Cup, at Royal Birkdale in England, was also bitterly contested. On the 18th hole, with the U.S. having won enough points to secure a tie and retain the Cup, Jack Nicklaus, as tough a competitor as there ever was in golf, conceded a three-foot putt to Tony Jacklin, allowing that year’s competition to end in a tie.

If Nicklaus did that at Hazeltine or Bethpage Black, he would have heard the same vulgarities that rained down on Lowry this week.

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