The fate of this year’s Ryder Cup should be determined sometime this month.
In an interview earlier this week on the “Golf Affect Radio Show” in Wisconsin, U.S. captain Steve Stricker said that a decision on whether to proceed as scheduled or postpone the Ryder Cup to 2021 likely will be made in the next “two or three weeks.”
“So far we’re planning it as a go, like we’re going to have it,” Stricker said on the radio show. “But there’s some obstacles that we’re going to have to face, I think. The confidence of the people and the corporate people. It’s going to come down to probably the safety. And who knows, right?
“They’re going to have to make a decision here probably within the next two or three weeks because the buildup to put up all the stands and all the corporate tents, all that kind of stuff, has to happen in June.”
Both American and European players have voiced their opposition to playing the Ryder Cup without spectators, if officials deem it unsafe to hold large gatherings in late September. A Wisconsin native, Stricker said playing without the partisan crowd at Whistling Straits would be a “yawner of an event” and a “crime” to Wisconsin fans. A fan-less Ryder Cup, Rory McIlroy said, “is not a Ryder Cup.”
But pushing back the event to 2021 creates a series of challenges, not the least of which is a conflict with the PGA Tour-hosted Presidents Cup, which is slated for Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. The Olympics have also been rescheduled for next summer.
“That would be up to the PGA of America and the PGA Tour to hash that out,” Stricker said on the show. “I think there’s just so much going on and there’s so much movement and fluidity that no one can really make an informed decision at this time.”