Ryder Cup veterans Colin Montgomerie and Graeme McDowell both feel this year’s edition at Whistling Straits should be postponed if fans don’t attend the event.
The pair have echoed the call of many other current players such as Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, who have all publicly said the Ryder Cup will lose its exciting touch should the event be staged behind closed doors.
McIlroy wants Ryder Cup postponed
Montgomerie and McDowell expressed their thoughts during Sunday’s Ryder Cup Watchalong on Sky Sports from the 2010 event in Wales.
McDowell, though, believes the event – due to get under way on 28 September – should only go ahead if it is safe enough for fans to be present.
‘Watching this, thinking: “Does the Ryder Cup work without this atmosphere, this excitement, this experience?” My answer is no, because this is what the Ryder Cup is all about,’ said the Northern Irishman.
‘Standing on that first tee, whether it’s in Europe or America, and you’ve got that partisan feeling among the fans supporting their guys, you’ve got the noise and the passion. It’s the fans that bring the X factor to the Ryder Cup.
‘That’s what makes the Ryder Cup so different, it’s what makes the intensity level for the players so different, and I can’t really imagine what it would feel like to make a 30-foot putt in a pivotal match in the Ryder Cup and then have silence.’
Montgomerie, who famously captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory at Celtic Manor ten years ago, supported McDowell’s stance by saying the organisers should be patient in order to complete a proper event.
‘The Ryder Cup is worth playing properly, and properly means having fans,’ added the Scott.
