NEWPORT, Wales _ The Ryder Cup’s appeal is indestructible.
This is all that saved the 38th edition of this biennial showdown of passion on the links from being an unmitigated failure last weekend.
Because, make no mistake: This Ryder Cup was headed for doom with its poor planning and seemingly endless weather delays _ and it wasn’t rain that was threatening to sabotage the greatest event in golf. It was greed, greed as green as the lush fairways at Celtic Manor.
So don’t blame the bad weather for early sending this historic competition into a potentially anti-climactic Monday finish. Blame greed.
Everyone involved in planning this event knows this time of year is one of the rainiest seasons in Wales.
Though much to the disdain of the Welsh, the words uttered by Nick Faldo as he ended his final speech as the European captain in the 2008 Ryder Cup ring so hauntingly true.
“See you in Wales,’’ Faldo said, “and don’t forget to bring your waterproofs.’’
Blaming Wales for its rainy weather at this time of year is like blaming your dog for shedding. It happens. So don’t blame Wales. Don’t kick the dog.
Blame the greed of the European Tour for nearly ruining this Ryder Cup by turning it into a disjointed event and compromising its drama.
Blame the European Tour for selling out golf fans by conducting this great competition on the wrong golf course while greedily lining its pockets with millions.
Before Monday’s scintillating singles round finally produced the drama we’re so used to in this event, this Ryder Cup has been a complete disappointment _ unless you’re the one of the European Tour execs counting the millions they made while skimming money from the gouging prices with everywhere related to the Ryder Cup.
Sir Terence Matthews, the first Welsh billionaire who bought and developed Celtic Manor, spending some 100 million British pounds along the way, paid the European Tour millions more to get the Ryder Cup to his home country to satisfy his ego.
The European Tour willingly bought in and in the process sold out.
Matthews, who’s from nearby Newport, Wales, has lived in Canada for most of his adult life and doesn’t even play golf.
At the end of the day, what Matthews, hoping to use this Ryder Cup to lure tourists to his overpriced resort, and what the money-grabbing European Tour did was collectively cross their fingers and hope everything would go smoothly.
The result has been the most poorly-run Ryder Cup in memory (I’ve covered every one since 1997) _ one that for awhile has become such a farce that Samuel Ryder was probably dizzy from rolling over in his grave.
From the start of the event, fans were screwed in so many ways it’s difficult to count.
Firstly, those who held Friday tickets and saw about 10 minutes of golf, were not given privileges to return for another session.
The bus transport system for everyone except, it seems, the teams and the fat-cat tournament officials, was so inept it was straight out of a “Laurel & Hardy’’ episode.
Once the buses dropped people off they were forced to walk about a mile of steep, hilly terrain that’s so treacherous it resembles one of those Gary Larson “Far Side’’ cartoons.
The entire place was a lawsuit in waiting. Too bad Weitz & Luxenberg doesn’t have an office in Wales, because business would have been more brisk than it was at the merchandise tent packed with overpriced souvenirs.
Wales is a beautiful place with friendly people, which makes it a shame that this greed has stained what should have been a three-day advertisement for everything good about the country.
Europe could easily have staged the Ryder Cup here at a more appropriate venue such Royal Porthcawl, the country’s most venerable course that has hosted both the Walker Cup and British Amateur.
Because Porthcawl, which is about 25 miles away from Celtic Manor, was build on sandy links land, where drainage is never an issue, there wouldn’t have been a single delay in this Ryder Cup despite the heavy rain that left Celtic Manor’s recently-manufactured 2010 Course that was build specifically for this competition.
That means this Ryder Cup could have been completed on time, draped in its traditional Sunday drama, instead of Monday.
Porthcawl wasn’t closed for a minute on Friday, when the Ryder Cup was delayed for more than seven hours, nor was it closed Sunday morning, when it was delayed another five-and-a-half hours.
The players at Royal Porthcawl played on through the rain, just as the Ryder Cuppers could have had they been competing there.
But Porthcawl wouldn’t do for the European Tour, because there’s not enough room to build all the corporate villages that make millions for it.
So the European Tour rolled the dice on an inland golf course built at the bottom of a valley and is a collection pool for all the water running down from the surrounding hills.
And it turned up snake eyes.
Embarrassed?
The organizers damn well should be. They, too, should be thankful that the players on both teams saved them from themselves by producing the pulsating singles round they did.
One of the most amusing things to come out of the disorganized week was talk from the Europeans blaming the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup series for pushing the Ryder Cup back about two weeks from its original mid-September date.
As if it rains any less on September 20 in Wales than it does on Oct. 1?
This blame-game talk is hot air and wasted energy.
At the end of the week, you heard the requisite butt-covering apologies and statements from the organizers, talking about how they can’t control the weather and praising the hardy fans who doled out big money for expensive tickets and saw precious little golf for their “perseverance.’’
To that we pose this question: Is perseverance from a litany of problems that could have been avoided with better planning the way we want to remember the greatest event in the sport?
To that we answer our own question: No.
