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How about a Ryder Cup at TPC Scottsdale?
That idea has been advocated for several years by Scottsdale resident and former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, and David Feherty echoed those sentiments Wednesday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
The Ryder Cup, a biennial team event featuring the top players from the United States and Europe, is a loud, rowdy affair and one in which fans are not shy about voicing their bipartisanship.
Those also are characteristics of the Open, which is being played this week, and a big reason why Lehman and Feherty think it would be a good fit. Both have competed in the event and know the value of the home-course advantage it presents.
“There are similarities,” said Feherty, who is from Ireland but holds American citizenship. “In fact, I suggested years ago that if we (Americans) want to win, they should hold it here where, A, you can sell a lot more tickets, and B, you want to talk about a partisan crowd, having this crowd on your side. There’s a rowdiness here that is very similar.”
Lehman was among eight former Ryder Cup players named to a task force to explore ways for the Americans to improve their chances of winning the Cup after they lost the event in 2014 at Gleneagles in Scotland. It marked the seventh loss for the Americans in eight events, dating to 2002.
“I was always a strong advocate of looking at what the other team does that makes them so successful,” Lehman said before the Charles Schwab Cup event in November at Phoenix Country Club.
“A big part of that is that they play on courses that they know really well in Europe. They want to host a Ryder Cup at a course that their golfers have played for eight or 10 years. We don’t do that, and I have been urging our guys to do it that way.”
The Ryder Cup is conducted by the PGA of America, which chooses courses for the matches many years in advance of when they are played. There are no current conversations about bringing the event to Scottsdale, and Ryder Cup venues have been chose for U.S. hosting years through 2036.
Weather in the Phoenix area makes it unsuitable to host most major golf competitions because they are played in the summer months.
But the Ryder Cup is played in the fall when temperatures are much more bearable. This year, the build-out for the Open started on Sept. 14, so a Ryder Cup build could be kept in place for the PGA Tour event.
It would be a challenge to host both within a few months, but it most likely would be a one-time-only happening. No U.S. venue has hosted the matches more than once since they began in 1927.
Feherty, who is beginning the 10th season of his popular TV show on the Golf Channel, said that, with the crowds the event probably would draw, “I think it would be a tremendous advantage for the Americans to have it in a place like this.”
Lehman also has been a long-time advocate of that move, largely because of the crowd factor, especially with the stadium-style design of the course, but also because of the excitement the matches might generate over the risk-reward back nine. That has been seen repeatedly with dramatic finishes since the Open moved to the course in 1986.
“I pushed really hard for a long time for them to use TPC Scottsdale as a venue,” Lehman said. “Number one, it’s a tremendous match-play golf course, especially over the last nine holes. The drama coming down the stretch is just phenomenal.
“Then you have the massive crowds and, on top of that, it’s a course that our players know extremely well. Some of the European players know the course too, but there is every good reason to play it at this course. That’s the kind of thing that would give our team the best chance to succeed.”
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