10 Reasons Why the 38th Ryder Cup is October’s Biggest Event

The coming of October brings us many joys: Postseason baseball. Colossal conference games in college football. More Brett Favre. Even the start of hockey season.

But this year, perhaps more than any other year, the 38th Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor (October 1 – October 3) will be the most anticipated sporting event in the world.

We’ll give you Ten Ryder Reasons why:

1 ) Tiger Woods. He’s the most recognized and compelling athlete on the planet. And that was before he wrecked his marriage, his life, and his Escalade last Thanksgiving. Since that night, his media microscope has only amplified as his golf game disappeared– as if either were possible. Will he be able to restore order with a dramatic performance in Wales?

2 ) It’s a bi-annual, global event. Europe’s fervor for the Ryder Cup makes SEC football fans look downright ambivalent. And there’s nothing us Americans love more than trying to assert our dominance over the world. (It tends to work better in sports than other arenas.) Throw in the fact that the continents clash only every other year — as opposed to, say, every Sunday — and you get an event unparalleled in meaning and machismo.

3 ) The 2008 Ryder Cup. The U.S. staged  arguably its most rousing, spirited campaign ever in the Victory at Valhalla two years ago. The Americans won by their largest margin since 1981 (16 1/2 – 11 1/2) and broke a three year European winning streak in the process. And they did it high-fiving, beer-drinking, and bull-riding all the way through. Much of that team returns to face a European squad that got embarrassed on the links and ridiculed in the press in 2008. In other words, those blokes will be ready to battle.

4 ) There’s a l-o-n-g way to go in the other seasons. As much as I love golf, I’m not crazy enough to say it’s more exciting than an NFL game. But they will be still be playing football in January. Baseball’s postseason lasts nearly a month. Hockey goes until it’s warm enough to melt the ice. But the Ryder Cup is one weekend every two years. The stakes are enormous, and they are immediate.

5 ) There’s no format like match-play golf. Imagine if during the NBA season, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were required to play one-on-one once a week.  Think a few people would watch? For golf fans, the idea of Rory McIlroy vs. Tiger Woods on Sunday, with nothing less than world golf superiority on the line, is positively salivating. And reason to clear out your schedule for the weekend.

6 ) Golf’s golden age. Seve Ballesteros made the Ryder Cup matter because he made the Europeans think they could win. He loved beating the Americans, and he made his continent love it, too. But the mainstream exposure of golf in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s — even with the likes of Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus walking the fairways — barely even registers on the ratings scale compared to today’s truly global, corporate game. Golf is a lot deeper, and richer, than ever before, on both sides of the pond. Interest in the Ryder Cup has only followed suit.

7 ) Sex and scandals. Tiger Woods isn’t the only golfing superstar with issues keeping his club in the bag. Europe’s leader, the ever-sunny Colin Montgomorie, of all people, is mired in a media assault after revelations of his own extramarital sexscapades. And trust, the English tabloids are far more ravenous and ruthless than even the most amoral of American press. Then there’s all those pretty Ryder Cup wives gathered around the greens…is it just me, or have golfing wives gotten exponentially hotter as golfing purses have gotten exponentially bigger?

8 ) Just ask Bubba Watson. Minutes after losing a playoff to Martin Kaymer at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in August, Watson said that qualifying for the Ryder Cup was a bigger deal to him than missing a chance to win his first major. Perhaps he was rationalizing what many consider a boneheaded decision that cost him the trophy. Then again, perhaps he was just speaking the truth. Watson is in the Boo Weekly-mould and rarely sees a reason to mince words.

9 ) Youth movements. The famous group of “twenty-somethings,” led by Dustin Johnson on the American side and McIlroy on the European front, will bring their exciting, hyper-aggressive brands of golf to a contest where that type of high-risk style generally flourishes. It is match-play, after all. And the 2008 U.S. team, almost to a man, is on record in saying that, despite the wealth of pedigree and experience on the team, it was the energy and aggressiveness of twenty-three  year old Anthony Kim that sparked the victory.

10 ) Did we mention Tiger Woods? He didn’t win a tournament all year, for the first time in his career. He looked downright hopeless in most of his rounds. His psyche is visibly (and understandably) shot. His swing is in the 10-handicap pits. In short, many are wondering if he’ll ever win a tournament again, much less the four majors needed to pass Nicklaus (18). If ever there was a chance for Tiger to set things right — at least get them in motion — it will be leading his country to victory in Wales.

BONUS PREDICTION: The U.S. team looks awful good. The European team looks even better. Don’t be fooled by the more familiar names on the American side; the other guys, from Westwood to Kaymer to McIlroy, are the ones playing the best golf. And there’s no home-field advantage quite like your own continent versus another one. Europe 15 1/2 – U.S. 12 1/2.