Once every two years, a number of professional golfers from the United States and Europe form teams and compete in an event called the Ryder Cup. If you are like most people watching golf on TV, it is far from entertaining. But this is an event for everyone to watch.
We are almost a month away from the bi-annual event and there are several reasons why you should tune in to watch this year.
1. Team event
It's not very often you see professional golfers that play against each other every week compete on the same team for each other. They create bonds, partnerships and even friendships.
2. Match play
Match play is much different than your traditional stroke play event. It produces a much more entertaining style of play, because players tend to play more aggressive. Essentially, it's who can win the most amount of holes on an 18 hole course. A bad hole doesn't hurt you nearly as bad in match play as it would in a stroke play event.
3. Alternate Shot/Four Ball
During the first few rounds, members of the team pair together to play in the team formats called alternate shot and four ball. This is where a lot of the strategy comes into play. Who does each teams captain pair together? Will that group fit? And so on. This has been an area of criticism for the United States side over the years where they have been out strategized by the Europeans.
4. Passion
YouTube "Ryder Cup Highlights" and if you like golf even a little bit, I promise it will fire you up to watch the upcoming events. Keep in mind, these guys don't get paid at all to play in this event. It's all for their country and the players show it. Fist pumps, high fives and team celebrations will be in abundance. Who doesn't like hearing chants of "USA, USA, USA, USA"?
5. Revenge
In 2012, the United States team had the tournament won. Until they didn't. They had a commanding 10-6 lead going into the final round of singles on their home turf until the tide changed. The Europeans started gaining more and more momentum until they had mounted probably the biggest comeback the Ryder Cup had ever seen. "Miracle at Medinah" is what is has been called. Many of the players on that team are back for this year and have made it very adamant that they plan to have the cup return to the American side.
By the way, my prediction: USA 15 Europe 13. With Jordan Spieth clinching the winning point for the Americans.
