The Ryder Cup is already one of the greatest spectacles in the world of sport.
However, there is a way in which the Ryder Cup could become even more exciting, and the change simply has to be made now.
Europe beat the United States at Bethpage Black last week, and they have now won 11 of the past 15 meetings.
Luke Donald was superior to Keegan Bradley at the Ryder Cup in every way, and Europe’s huge lead heading into the singles proved to be unassailable in the end.
Bradley was widely criticised by US Ryder Cup fans for his poor decision-making at Bethpage last week.
He certainly made some bizarre calls, including his decision to use Collin Morikawa and Harris English as a foursomes pairing, not once, but twice!
Has Bradley not been silly enough to use the 132nd ranked optimal Ryder Cup pairing, the score may well have been a lot closer heading into the Sunday singles matches.
Major Ryder Cup change would take excitement levels to an all-time high
It’s not like the Ryder Cup needs to reinvent the wheel.
However, if we’re being picky, there are one or two things which could definitely make the competition even better.
Many have mentioned the scrapping of the ‘envelope rule’ as something that needs to happen, but there is another rule that should be changed.
When the Ryder Cup was incepted back in 1927, it was played with a really friendly spirit between both teams.
That has all changed now. The Ryder Cup has become a trophy which both teams will do anything they can to win.
So with that in mind, a play-off rule should be brought in. As things stand, should the scores end up at 14-14, the team that won the previous clash gets to retain the trophy.
That’s simply not good enough given how big the competition has become over the past 20-30 years. A sudden death play-off between a player from each team would take excitement levels to an all-time high.
In fairness, there have only been two ties in the history of the Ryder cup, so it’s a very rare occurrence anyway.
But whenever it does happen again, boy would it be exciting.
One obvious problem with Ryder Cup play-off
The Ryder Cup is an absolute behemoth of an event nowadays.
The eyes of the golfing world are fixed on the biennial tournament every two years and even non-golf fans show interest in the event.
The Ryder Cup has become so big that losing is a much bigger deal than it was back in 40 or more years ago.
We’ve already seen that with the criticism that Russell Henley has received for leaving his putt to win his match against Shane Lowry short, on the 18th hole at Bethpage on Sunday.
So if the powers that be did switch up the rules and brought in the concept of a play-off in the event of the scores ending up tied at 14-14, there would be a serious amount of pressure on just one man.
Jack Nicklaus gave Tony Jacklin a two-and-a-half foot putt on the final green back in 1969 because he didn’t want to give him the chance of missing and become a target for unfair criticism.
Should a play-off rule be brought in, the two players taking part would be under extreme pressure. Perhaps that would be unfair on them.
However, if the Ryder Cup hierarchy do bring in the play-off rule, it would add yet another level of excitement to what is an already incredible competition.
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