Category: 2021 Ryder Cup

Phil Mickelson doesn’t sound confident in his chances but he has one more week to impress Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker

“I have not played consistently week in and week out to earn a spot,” Mickelson said Tuesday.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Reigning PGA champion Phil Mickelson sounded resigned to the fact he would not be playing for the U.S. in next month’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

Mickelson has played in every Ryder Cup since making his debut in the biennial tussles between the U.S. and Europe in 1995. His experience and energetic ways in the team room would seemingly prove to be beneficial.

But if the member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who counts six majors on his resume is to extend the streak, he needs to impress U.S. captain Steve Stricker enough to be one of six discretionary selections that would round out the squad.

Stricker will make his six picks two days after next week’s Tour Championship concludes. Mickelson isn’t exactly holding his breath, for he knows he needs a drastic turn to the good with his form and right quick.

“I have not played consistently week in and week out to earn a spot,” Mickelson said Tuesday on the 10th tee at Caves Valley Golf Club as he continued his prep for the BMW Championship with a practice round with Emiliano Grillo.

“There are better players, there are younger players,” Mickelson said. “And unless I were to win this week, or finish whatever I need to finish, like top 4 or top 5, to get into the Tour Championship and then win there, maybe I’d deserve a pick.

“Other than that, I haven’t played at the level consistently week in and week out to deserve a spot. I had one great week at the PGA.”

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That he did. At Kiawah Island, Mickelson became the oldest player to win a major as he held off Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen en route to winning his second Wanamaker Trophy to go with his three green jackets and Claret Jug.

But in 17 other starts in 2021, Mickelson, who is 19th in the Ryder Cup standings, has missed seven cuts and posted zero top 10s. He hasn’t played anywhere near his world rank of 33rd. But he has one more week, possibly two, to turn things around.

Mickelson was at Caves Valley on Monday with nary a worry on his mind. While he had missed the cut in last week’s Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club, Mickelson felt secure that his rank in the FedEx Cup standings would remain inside the top 70, the cutoff point for the BMW, and he was getting familiar with this rolling, massive layout.

Then things started happening up and down the leaderboard in the shadow of the Manhattan Skyline and Lady Liberty and his season moved into peril mode.

“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue,” Mickelson said. “Then we started to watch the last hour, half hour, and it became closer than I thought.”

It couldn’t have been any closer. While six players moved into the top 70 with solid weeks of play, Mickelson fell from 58th to 70th and qualified.

“I find the golf course terrific and I am appreciative for the opportunity to play and I really don’t have any to lose,” Mickelson said. “If I go out and have a really great week, I can get into next week. And, if not, I’ll have a few weeks off.”

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For Ryder Cup 2021, Sheboygan County’s remaining hotel and Airbnb options cost more than $1,000 per night

One Airbnb host listed his three-bedroom, two-bathroom home for $3,000 a night.

SHEBOYGAN, Wisc. — Typically, you can get a room at Sheboygan’s Blue Harbor Resort for anywhere from $190 to $330 per night. For Thursday, Sept. 23, the cheapest room left on the hotel’s website is $4,500.

This is because almost all area hotels and rentals have been completely booked for the Ryder Cup, the biennial competition that brings together the best players from the United States and Europe and which this year will take place at Whistling Straits, just north of Sheboygan.

Before being delayed in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Ryder Cup was projected by Visit Sheboygan to bring $30 million to the county. Tickets are sold out and as of Wednesday were starting at $300 per day on secondary markets.

For guests and attendees who have not secured a place to stay, most local options will cost more than $1,000 per night.

A search on Airbnb shows the price increase in the rental homes. As of Wednesday, there were bedrooms in Cleveland and Sheboygan going for $450 per night, and the next cheapest option in the area was $900. One house in Kiel that advertised its nearness to the Ryder Cup was going for $5,000 per night.

A quick search for Sheboygan-area hotels on Hotels.com showed just one option Wednesday: Belgium Inn & Suites, with two rooms left at $450 per night. According to the site, “90 additional properties aren’t available for your travel dates.”

Cameron Bopp, regional manager for Pride Hospitality LLC, oversees three hotels in the Sheboygan area — Harbor Winds Hotel, The AmericInn and Holiday Inn Express. According to Bopp, reservations for the event started coming in three years ago.

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A map of available Airbnb rentals and their prices over the weekend of the Ryder Cup event.

All three of the locations are completely booked for the event. Although they’ve been booked by corporations and are not taking public reservations, prices at least doubled, he said.

“With high demand comes high prices,” Bopp said.

The Fairfield Inn and Suites Sheboygan, another hotel sold out for the event, had rooms going for around $1,200 a night with a five-night minimum, according to an employee.

Even many hotels as far away as Manitowoc and Two Rivers are completely booked for the weekend.

One Airbnb host, Eric Hahn, listed his three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Howard’s Grove for $3,000 a night. This is his first time listing his house.

“The Ryder Cup is the only reason I signed up for Airbnb,” Hahn said. “I would consider doing it again, but I need to make a decent amount of money to make it worth finding somewhere to stay for a family of five.”

Hahn said that he determined the price for his listing based off what his neighbors were listing their rentals for. Homes in his surrounding area are listed for around $2,500 a night.

Jaimie Kurtz, the host of a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom home in Plymouth listed for $3,750 a night, said he decided to list his rental for the event when he noticed the rates for local hotel rooms.

“I took the size of my home, how many it sleeps, the amenities and the distance from Whistling Straits to determine the price,” Kurtz said. Kurtz, like most of the hotels and other rentals, has a three-day minimum for his listing.

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