Adam Cairns-Imagn Images
The Ryder Cup is returning to the United States later this year, but most golf fans will have to shell out a significant amount of dough to watch things go down in person at Bethpage Black. However, thousands of spectators will get the chance to attend a round for free courtesy of an initiative targeting golfers in the state where it’s being held.
The vast majority of golf tournaments are relatively subdued events where fans in the gallery are expected to be on their best behavior. There’s one very notable exception on the PGA Tour in the form of the WM Phoenix Open, and the only other event that rivals that atmosphere is the Ryder Cup.
That beloved biennial international showdown has a history stretching back to 1927, and while the golfers who took part in the inaugural matches at Worcester Country Club didn’t have to deal with hordes of rowdy spectators fueled by unbridled patriotism, that element has helped make it one of the most anticipated events in golf.
In September, the United States will look to bounce back from its loss to Europe at Marco Simone in Italy in 2023 when the Ryder Cup heads back to American soil and transpires on the hallowed grounds of Bethpage Black in Long Island, the infamously difficult public course that will be hosting it for the first time.
It will be both a very hot ticket and an incredibly expensive one, as the cheapest price of admission for a round after the competition officially gets underway was $750 (more than double what it cost to get into Whistling Straits when the Ryder Cup was held there in 2021).
However, according to ESPN, the PGA of America is doing what it can to ease that burden for some lucky golf fans in New York, as the organization has allotted 3,000 tickets that will be randomly handed out at public courses around the state in the lead-up to the event.
It appears the powers that be are keeping the courses in question under wraps until they head there to distribute the tickets (some have also been reserved for “first responders and community groups”), and while most golfers in New York probably don’t need an extra excuse to hit the links now that the season is firmly underway, they’ve certainly gotten one.