Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart – who is now one of Sky Sports top golf pundits – thinks the 2020 Ryder Cup must go ahead – even if fans are banned because of the COVID-19 crisis
EX-Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart warned Europe’s top players they must play against the USA at Whistling Straits in September – because there is no guarantee the COVID-19 crisis could be over in another 12 months’ time.
So even if fans are barred from watching Padraig Harrington’s Europeean team go head to head with Steve Stricker’s American team at the Wisconsisn course, which hosted the USPGA Championship twice between 2004 and 2010, the Scot thinks the 2020 Ryder Cup must be played.
Coltart told Sky Sports Golf viewers: “Thomas Bjorn made a good point that we don’t know where we’re going to be in 12 months.
“We don’t know whether the vaccine is going to be effective or whether they’re going to have a vaccine.
“If the event has to be suspended again because of another spike… goodness me, the economic fallout of that could be catastrophic.”
It means Coltart is in the camp with Ryder Cup captains Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington who have called for the event to go ahead.
Meanwhile Ian Woosnam, the winning captain in Dublin in 2006, has said the Ryder Cup without fans in September would be a disaster.
Coltart’s view that the biennial contest – which has been won by Europe in seven of the last stagings since 2002, the last time the event was rescheduled following the 9/11 terrorist attack on New Year – is not universally popular with the prospective members.
The famous Ryder Cup trophy at Whistling Straits, in Wisconsin – the venue for 2020
Coltart: 2020 will go down in history
RORY McIlroy has led European calls for the event to be postponed – if fans are not going to be allowed at Whistling Straits.
Earlier this month, McIlroy was asked if he would consider refusing to play in a Ryder Cup without fans.
The World No. 1 said he would prefer the tournament to be played in 2021 – if it is not safe for fans to attend because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “Look, I love the Ryder Cup. But I can’t see it without fans.
“I think there are enough people in the game who don’t want the Ryder Cup to happen without the fans.
“So this year it will be played with the fans if we can do that, or we’ll have to figure out kicking it down the road to a later date.
But Coltart believes the players have an obligation to entertain the millions of golf fans who would watch on TV, in addition to the 40,000 crowds expected on all three days.
It would give fans all around the world something to smile about after all the death and disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think if we can go ahead with it we should go ahead with it,” said Coltart, who made his Ryder Cup debut playing against Tiger Woods in the Sunday singlesat the Battle of Brookline, in 1999.
Coltart added: “I totally accept that won’t be an opinion shared by absolutely everybody.
“But nonetheless I think the world has been through a tumultuous period, a very difficult period for a lot of people.
“Some people have come through unscathed, other people have been nowhere near as fortunate.
“Golf is a great opportunity to heal the world – not just the sporting world – but the world in general.
“And I think the Ryder Cup is a fantastic opportunity for that.
“What better than two continents going at it in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup?
“Yes, there won’t be the fans, but people back home are crying out for some sense of normality – something to help pick their lives up from what has been a very, very difficult time.
“I accept that it won’t be like the Ryder Cups of years gone by.”
Rory McIlroy thinks the 2020 Ryder Cup will be postponed until 2021
Rory: No fans, no Ryder Cup
RORY McIlroy has led European calls for the event to be postponed – if fans are not going to be allowed at Whistling Straits.
McIlroy was asked if he would consider refusing to play in a Ryder Cup without fans, earlier this month.
He said: “Look, I love the Ryder Cup. But I can’t see it without fans.
“I think there are enough people in the game who don’t want the Ryder Cup to happen without the fans.
“So this year it will be played with the fans if we can do that, or we’ll have to figure out kicking it down the road to a later date.”
Coltart was one of two players controversially left out of the fourballs and foursomes on the first two days in Boston by captain Mark James.
The USA stormed back from a 10-6 deficit to win amid incredible scenes.
But they sparked one of the biggest rows in Ryder Cup history with accusations of unsporting behaviour levelled at the US team by captain Mark James.
Coltart accepts that the 2020 Ryder Cup is also certain to stand out in the competition’s history – which dates back to the first unofficial match between two teams representing the USA and Great Britain and Ireland at Wentworth in 1926.
The two-time European Tour winner said: “It will be very difficult for them, as they’ll always be remembered as the players who played in that Ryder Cup, or captained that Ryder Cup.
“But I think there’s maybe an obligation to the world to get that game played and to try and get us back to a sense of normality.”
USA captain Steve Stricker and Europe’s Padraig Harrington have discussed playing the Ryder Cup even if fans are barred in September. Picture by GETTY IMAGES
Captains caught on either side of Ryder Cup debate
THE debate over holding the 2020 Ryder Cup with or without fans, in September, has split Tour golfers down the middle.
Senior European Tour figures like past captain Paul McGinley and current captain Padraig Harrington have changed their tune since speculation began with the COVID-19 lockdown in March.
While they spent the last couple of months trying to bang the drum for a fan-less Ryder Cup, McIlroy has been consistent in his stance.
McIlroy said in May: “I think the majority of players would like to see it pushed back until 2021 – so that they can play in front of crowds and have the atmosphere that makes the Ryder Cup so special.
“The players are the ones that make the Ryder Cup. If they are not on board with it and don’t want to play then there is no Ryder Cup.
“I see it being pushed back until 2021 and, honestly, I think that will be the right call.”
Ian Woosnam: Ryder Cup is all about the players
RORY made his debut at Celtic Manor in 2010 and has won 13 out of 24 points so far in five appearances.
He was famously almost late on the tee for his Sunday singles at Medinah in 2012. Rory required a police escort to get to the course after getting confused by the US time zones, while watching TV coverage in his hotel room.
Rory arrived with 12 minutes to spare. He beat Keegan Bradley 2&1 as Jose-Maria Olazabal’s team came back from 10-6 down to win 141/2-131/2.
Woosnam, who played in eight consecutive Ryder Cups, said last week: “For me it would be an absolute disaster.”
The first and only Welshman to win the Masters in 1991, told a ‘Ryder Cup at Home Social’ – alongside Peter Baker and Paul Lawrie – last Friday: “It’s all about the fans – the atmosphere, being there.
“I can understand the corporate side of it – and television. But you have to remember the players are playing for nothing, and it’s all about the players really. Everyone wants to be there.”
