In the end it was about a hat, an invisible hat, an all too visible row and a noisy crowd that sometimes seemed too large, too rooted in their own importance, just too much. But, goodness, the 2023 Ryder Cup was diversionary fun.
An ancient Roman Stoic philosopher even got into the mix at the end. Oh, and “apologies for any bad language” became the most used phrase by the commentators. Flipping heck, whatever has happened to the old game’s sense of understatement, a state of mind that has been overwhelmed by modern society’s determination to say what you want, when you want, to who you want and to hell with the consequences.
Not that Europe’s captain was involved in any of the nonsense. Actually Luke Donald was more, as a fellow journalist has pointed out, of a CEO given his platoon of assistants made up of former skippers, local heroes and, in Edoardo Molinari’s case, an analytics genius apparently. No, Donald was never less than controlled, considered, low-key and impressive in a very dependable sort of way. In another life he’d have made a fantastic accountant or maybe more likely a benevolent professor.
I like Luke, I respect him as a golferprequel, that confusingly also featured Novak Djokovic, an F1 driver and an American actress.
