By Travis Clement

GolfWRX Contributor

God Bless America and the Ryder Cup. I love America and I love golf and when you put the two together I get pretty excited. The Ryder Cup players represent their countries and country with the passion that is so missed in the day-to-day, humdrum, medically-prescribed, regular Tour stops. It gives us a chance to pull for a cause, not a payday, and see our favorite players play as a team and give up self for the cause and the cause is the United States of America.

But there are a few things that I would like to see changed during this whole process. Hey, it is what it is, and the Ryder Cup is by far the most pure sense of the game we get to see. I put up with things like who made the uniforms or who’s wife is wearing white after labor day then, so be it, because it is about the golf in the end and good ol’ patriotism.

But for the sake of wishful thinking I have a few things that I think could make the Ryder cup even better.

No. 1 — Play the rounds at Augusta National every year the Ryder Cup is in the U.S. and at St. Andrews every year it is in Europe. It would be interesting to see the match play format at St. Andrews or the four-ball format around Amen Corner.

No. 2 — Have cannons fire every time the U.S. wins a match just for the pure coolness of it all. Nothing says victory like a Howitzer firing. Europe can do what they like in this case (except dance).

No. 3 — Have the U.S. Marines handle crowd control. I guarantee that you will not have any loud, drunken, cell phone or camera clicking issues to disturb players.

No. 4 — Add a skills competitions. Yes, think about how cool that would be to watch, Bubba hooking a 175 yard shot to break a glass pane or Sergio replaying that famous shot from behind the tree at Medinah.

No. 5 — Let some great musical groups write a theme songs for each sides cause.

No. 6 — Bring back some of the old gamesmanship rules, like stymies. That would be really interesting.

No. 7 — Have kids caddie for the players. It is not about money at this point so let the kids see their country’s best players up close and personal.

No. 8 — I would like to see the U.S. Captians standing in front of an American Flag (Pattonish) or European captain’s channeling Churchill and give  motivational speeches that rally their teams in a patriotic vein.

No. 9 — Make it mandatory that a viewing of Caddyshack and Dead Solid Perfect be completed by all players the week of the match.

No. 10 — Put a picture of the team on the front of a Wheaties box.

Now, of course these are just fantasy, but I do want to say in all seriousness that we enjoy the Ryder Cup and what it represents to us. In today’s world of sometimes selfish and overpaid athletes, it is nice to see people doing what they love for the pride of their countries. That is why we, as a nation, love amateur sports, such as college athletics because they play for pride (ok, sometimes future earnings as well).

In today’s world of rampant cynicism and politically charged speech it is nice to be able to sit down and tune out the mess the world is in and see sportsmanship and pride take hold of people, who for the most part, live a life we only can dream of. But during this time we relate to them because minus the fact we cannot hit golf shots like them, we have love for the game and love for our country’s and patriotism does not take a special skill to have.

As I write this I am sitting on a flight to the West Coast and while the aircraft was leaving the gate the current and past heroes of the U.S. were recognized and applauded by all on the plane. And even though I am in America, I know that the Europeans feel just as strongly about their nations hero’s and love their countries and traditions just as much as we do.

So, even though our countries may not  always agree on things in all we do we all have one thing in common and that is a love for our country, and the pride we take in it.  And even though these men playing the Ryder Cup are not facing life threatening situations each day they are representing their country. My only request of them is to remember that and honor it and for them to remember just as were are proud of our heroes who serve we are proud of these men on the Ryder Cup Teams. So win, lose or draw, we are behind you all and wish you well and for you to play proudly.

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