Lanny Wadkins remembers being booed. and non-champion.
Both moments are placed on the Ryder Cup. He was introduced on the first tee in the 1985 match at the bell tower in England – the Americans said he was ridiculed by European faithful living around him. Then, four years later, Wardkins broke again on the 18th hole, with only silence.
“There must be five, six people behind the green,” he said. “Everyone’s arms were folded up and no one applauded my Eagle chip.
“They hope it’s missing.”
Asked on the Golf Channel’s “Today Today” show if the Ryder Cup crowd could cross the line this year, I thought of the main winner and the memories of Ryder Cupper. The idea was played at the BMW BMW PGA Championship at DP World Tour ahead of the event at Bethpage Black in Long Island, New York, and Rory McIlroy said European captain Luke Donald has been providing them with virtual reality head-mounted services to mimic the noise.
“It’s just to simulate the sight, sound and noise,” McIlroy said in a story written by the Associated Press. “That’s what we have to deal with. So it’s better to try to desensitize yourself before you get there. You can get them to say whatever they want to say.
“So you can get close to the bones as you like.”
As for Wardkins’s idea? Wadkins said on “Golf Today” that he hopes the Bethpage crowd can be controlled – he said he believes American supporters have been “noisy” in the past but have not gotten out of control.
The captain of the 1995 Ryder Cup also said: “I’m always funny, we never say a word about what happens when we play in Europe.” Not long after, he smiled:
“I mean, we got the same treatment there. We never complained about it.
“Sometimes I think Europeans are just a bunch of bad people who can’t handle the calories.”
This year’s Ryder Cup will begin next Friday morning at Bethpage Black.
Editor’s Note: To watch Wadkins’ full Golf Today interview, click here.
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