Trouble with a $750 Ryder Cup ticket? This idea may solve everything

Dear PGA of America,

Hello! Love your PGA Championships, men’s and women’s. We liked the club professionals and the club instructions, too. (The piece is gone, BTW!) It’s in that spirit, then, that this note is delivered today, as your showcase event, the Ryder Cup, appears to have attached one to the proverbial cabbage by charging fans $750 to enter next year’s show at the prestigious Bethpage Black, Island of Long in New York. To put the reaction another way, golf’s folk quarter-zip is reversed. It’s like someone suggested that host city bagels and pizzas are inferior.

But we are here to help, not to pile on. In fact, one solution may solve everything.

However, some background is needed first. The Ryder Cup tournament director, Bryan Karns, adjusted the ticket price Golf games Sean Zak citing many factors, the main of which is that the biennial event comes to the New York City market, and the belief in its need and status (think of the World Series or the NBA Finals game). “We knew it would be important for us to get this right and try to do something that we feel is consistent with where we see ourselves and where we are in this world,” Karns told Zak. “But at the same time, understanding that there is a certain nuance to Ryder Cup tickets. A full day event compared to three hours. It doesn’t have a seat, but a GA ticket allows you to be in line, [compared] if I bought standing room only at Yankee Stadium last night. So we try to balance all these. And it’s not as simple as apples to apples. But we took a lot of feedback and we got to this point where we felt like, look, this is what we feel confident about. “

It sounds reasonable. So why is it strange? Because $750 is almost three times what it cost to go through the turnstiles at the last two Ryder Cups, in Wisconsin in 2021, and in Italy last year. There is more, however. The Ryder Cup is played in Bethpage, muni, which means anyone can win it there – and for probably less money than they’d shell out for a golf ball-eating behemoth. (Insiders are charged just $70 on weekdays; for non-New Yorkers, it’s $140). Bethpage is the People’s Country Club, the capital Pcapital C‘s. And now it is possible for outsiders to look in? Golf games James Colgan, also a native LI’er, expanded on this point recently, writing:

“A $750 Ryder Cup ticket … tells us that golf is for someone instead of everyone. It suggests that we face that reality, and not complain. It separates golf enthusiasts from those who can afford it.

“Bethpage has never been about the haves and have-nots. It gained its favor precisely because it rejected golf’s small world notions of choice and exclusivity. Entering these Ryder Cup ideas isn’t just an insult to everything Bethpage stands for – it’s a sign the PGA of America never understood in the first place.

In other words, the scene here is worse than the Long Island Expressway during rush hour. But unlike the Jets and Giants, there is hope.

There is a way to mostly – if not completely – respect the wishes of the PGA, while respecting Bethpagian values. The solution is taken directly from Bethpage itself, where for years people have camped out overnight on the course in hopes of making it to one of the morning courses. So we propose this:

Set a The Ryder Cup throughout the night, where fans can get a refund on tickets already purchased – and enter for just a green fee. Speaking of which, that’s the best part – to get most access, you have to play one round at Bethpage Black in the last year.

You may have questions, so let’s try to answer them.

How many fans are allowed into the arena? Let’s make it 3,000 a day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

When can they start lining up? 3 in the morning; if people are in the morning or don’t have evidence playing around, they are turned away. When were they brought in? 3 am Where can it be placed? Newsday headquarters, where fans are locked into the 2019 PGA Championship.

Why is there a need to play rounds? You get Bethpage diehards. Why not just give people a cheap ticket after playing a round? Nice thought, but the good hearted 3am crowd will be behind Rory as soon as he drops the ball into range.

Could there be chaos? Possibly. You can also limit things by offering passes that are played for only 9,000 rounds, each one selected per day.

Is there a permit in the area? Yes. Beer? Yes, but the maximum is three cups! Is there music? Just “Born in the USA” again. Do these fans have a nickname? Hell yes. The Bethpage Battalion? Keegan’s Corps? We are open to suggestions. Speaking of the captain, he’s going to ride a gun on the shuttle one morning. Or all of them.

But who pays the costs?

Maybe not the PGA, but maybe. However, we bank on the sponsor. Think of it this way: Would you buy a company’s product based on seeing its logo in a Ryder Cup ad, or knowing that the company was the author of this popular opinion? I thought so.

Just imagine those fans on the first tee.

And think of those people who imprisoned Bethpage and now they are full.

And think of you, PGA of America, who just cooked up probably the best fan idea ever.

All by reading this book.

Sincerely,

Nick

To contact the author, or give them credit when this idea is used, please email them at nick.piastowski@golf.com.