America’s Patrick Reed has joined the growing call to postpone the Ryder Cup to next year, should organisers be unable to stage the event in the presence of spectators.
World No 1 Rory McIlroy has on a number of occasions said the event will lose its magic touch if fans aren’t allowed to attend Whistling Straits, with fellow European Jon Rahm and World No 3 Brooks Koepka echoing him.
And now, Reed, who will almost definitely be part of the American team for the event, has also raised his concerns if the event goes ahead in front of empty galleries.
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‘You want to have that banter back and forth with the crowds. If you’re a home team, you basically want that 12th man. If you’re the away team, you’re expecting to kind of going into a hostile environment. Without fans, it just seems like it would be hard for everyone to kind of get up and show the emotion that you normally would whenever you have fans there,’ said Reed.
Rumours, however, began to surface earlier this week that the Ryder Cup will indeed be pushed back to 2021 due to the ongoing threat and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson also said an event next year will give players better and more realistic opportunities to make the respective teams and prove their worth to the two captains, given the long halt in golf recently experienced.
‘If they postpone it, that gives me a better chance of making the team, but at the same time I think for the spirit of the game, either way they roll with it, it’ll be worth it, but for fans’ sake, yes, I wish they would postpone it to get some fans there,’ said Watson.
