The Ryder Cup 2023 has been a blast

A slow and boring sport. This was a comment I heard over and over again about golf in conversations leading up to the 2023 Ryder Cup, a legendary tournament held this year at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome. The 2023 Ryder Cup, always considered an elitist and exclusive sport, especially in Italy, showed even newcomers like me that golf is not just about private clubs, well-dressed athletes and greens cut to size. Golf in Rome was all that, but also extravagant dress like a carnival to celebrate the Team USA and Team Europe players, boisterous cheering, beer and fish and crisps, crazy races to get to the course and chants at 7am thrown from the stands at the tee of hole 1. The Ryder Cup was a successful event in many ways. The media coverage with over 600 million viewers and the 250,000 or so who went through the turnstiles at the Marco Simone Golf Course are the picture of a success that was expected by many fans, perhaps less so by me and by the Italian public who are not used to seeing golf on the front pages of the newspapers, despite the recent successes of Francesco Molinari - now vice-captain of Team Europe. 

Rome was invaded by fans, the hotels were all booked, the restaurants likewise, many Americans, Scandinavians, Spaniards, Englishmen, all arrived to follow the strongest players in the world: Scottie Scheffler, Victor Hovland, Max Homa and Tommy Fleetwood, who with his last point gave victory to Team Europe. The Ryder Cup was by no means a flat tournament, the agonism was extremely high, Rory McIlroy was seen arguing furiously at the end of the day on Saturday, Koepka accused Rahm of being a 'child', and all this contributed to increasing the level of competition and the energy of the crowd along the 18-hole course. The near-perfect organization of the Marco Simone, together with the PGA and European Tour, gave Italy one of the most important events in the recent history of Italian sport. In addition to the extremely high level of competition, the management of logistics, transport in the capital (historically complicated) and internal facilities (bars, restaurants, partner activations, parking, shuttles, shops) has set a precedent of an event to which every other sporting event in Italy must aspire. The Ryder Cup 2023 was a Hole in One, the most spectacular shot in golf, a hole without hesitation, in one swing, good first.