SOUTHAMPTON, NY – It was exactly 100 years ago that iconic golf writer Bernard Darwin first saw sunset over National Golf Links of America. “It is with a perceptible thrill that one catches one’s first glimpse of the course….It was my good fortune to arrive at the course at just the hour when the spirit of romance most palpably brooded over it.” Exactly 100 years later nothing has changed, for as a velvety dusk descends upon scenic Southampton, the warm glow of the Sportlight still shines in the smiles of everyone at the Walker Cup.
The scoreboard reads United States 17 Great Britain & Ireland 9, but that doesn’t matter, because the whole golf world won this Walker Cup. It was the incomparable grandeur of majestic National Golf Links of America – arguably the greatest and most important golf course in the Western Hemisphere – where you walk in history with every step. It was the camaraderie of American and European fans alike, showing the world international cooperation and friendship even while in fierce competition with one another. It was the altruism, wholesomeness, and passion of amateur golf, far superior in ethos and sincerity to its professional counterpart. It was all the best virtues that golf embodies on display for all the world to see.
It was golf as a microcosm of how life should be.
You wouldn’t have thought it possible listening to the media run up to the tournament. Before this 44th staging of the biennial matches between the best amateurs in America and GB&I, there was much negativity in an effort to create a “buzz.” First there was incessant chatter about the so-called decline of American golf. People who lean on stats for support rather than using them for illumination tried comparing not apples and oranges, but apples and orangutans. Yes we’ve lost the Solheim, Curtis, and Ryder Cups of late, but that’s only a two-year sample, far to short to draw such wide-sweeping conclusions. Despite the doom and gloom, we won the Walker Cup comfortably.
Then there was the hypercritical reaction to certain captain’s picks. One pundit actually accused the American captains of sabotaging the team’s chances by stooping to pick certain players felt inferior to his own choices. But the entire team played well, almost completely top to bottom, and they dominated in the singles format 13.5 to 4.5. Indeed, the players were a joy to be around – grateful, gracious, and generous with the fans. Rather than boasting about courtesy cars, massages, and goodie bags, they were squeaky clean, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and open hearted with all th efans. Rodgers posing for every picture, Kim signing every autograph, or Nathan Smith and Max Homa trading stories with American and British fans alike, it was remarkable their accessibility and openness.
Then, of course, there was the tired, obligatory demonizing of the local Hamptons golf fans as elitists. There were the typical rails against opulent, exclusive country clubs. There were the easy jokes about wealthy Southamptonians. One U.K. writer went so far as to snidely snipe that “more than half the people there will have an initial before their name.” It was a mindless cheap shot born of a resentment and old prejudice.
But it was completely debunked once again this weekend. Everywhere you looked there were buoyant hearts and a wondrous good cheer between all the fans, U.S. and GB&I alike. There was none of the ugly partisan acrimony that too often blights the Ryder Cup. Despite the insistence by some writers that we, “bring a little New York flavor” to the proceedings by being boisterous, there were – thankfully – no drunk lugnuts shouting “Baba Booey!” And unlike the ridiculously overcrowded U.S. Open, there was room for the spectators to walk easily around the grounds, often down the fairway with the players and caddies.
In short, there was nary a snap, snipe, or sour note from the fans. Cynics decried the well-heeled local fans as “the cocktail circuit,” but there’s a reason why it’s called “polite society.” The media might prefer Scottsdale every week, but the golfers certainly don’t.
“That’s not a golf tournament,” Brad Faxon famously complained, and he’s right.
It might make for interesting television to have liquored up troglodytes howling rabidly, by yet again we see that what’s best for television is not even close to what’s best for golf. Sometimes the media’s greatest talent is spreading enmity and discord. The fans, happily, displayed remarkable goodwill and friendship towards one another, and they set a terrific example for everyone watching on TV. Pretty good for a bunch of people who were derided as elitist snobs. Maybe we all ought to have first initials to our names.
Finally, there was none of the crass corporate commercialism masquerading as culture. There was no vapid, needless “wives and girlfriends” dog-and-pony show, and there were no “apparel scripts,” (the uniforms were sensible, as opposed to the loud, unwearable “look at me” garbage we’ve seen the last two years on the PGA Tour. Octopus pants anyone?). And there was none of the ugly partisanship that some feel necessary to escalate the event to a football-like frenzy.
Where the media has made us a nation obsessed with fixations and instant gratification, golf has peacefully endured with its typical grace and class. This was the 91st anniversary of the Walker Cup the 113th year since Macdonald finished designing the National and with the right kind of eyes, you can see what golfers have seen for a century. At a timw when the world is tearing itself apart, golf unifies everyone with its virtues and ethos: selflessness and camaraderie.
Yes, as C.B. Macdonald wrote, “There are no more beautiful golfing vistas in the world than those from the National Golf Club, unless it be those from Mid—Ocean Club in Bermuda,” but more importantly, we saw golf bringing people together in celebration, win or lose. If there is one thing the media never gets right, it’s that creating a buzz is counterproductive. You don’t need to create stories in golf, the drama unfolds on its own. That’s the magic, of the game. That’s the romance Darwin was writing about. With that as its fulcrum, the game move the World.
THIS ARTICLE ALSO APPEARED AT CYBERGOLF.COM
