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PGA of America - Ryder Cup postponed until 2021, Presidents Cup 2022
Ryder Cup to be postponed until 2021, Presidents Cup pushed back to 2022
The decision has loomed for weeks, and the PGA of America will make it official Wednesday when it postpones the Ryder Cup for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told ESPN on Tuesday that the event, scheduled for September 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, will be delayed until the same time frame in 2021.
"There will not be a Ryder Cup this year," the source said. "The Ryder Cup will go to 2021, the Presidents Cup to 2022, and then they will alternate from there."
The PGA of America and European Tour are expected to release the information officially on Wednesday morning.
British newspapers the Telegraph and the Guardian reported weeks ago that the Ryder Cup would be postponed, but getting to this point required the cooperation of numerous entities, including the PGA Tour and the European Tour.
The Presidents Cup was scheduled for September 30 - October 3, 2021, at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Ryder Cup will take that window, with the Presidents Cup moving to 2022 and the next Ryder Cup, scheduled for September 30 - October 2, 2022, in Rome, also pushed back a year.
"There's a lot of behind-the-scenes things that people don't know," the source said. "They have to look out for the best of each organization. I think there is way more to it than people would realize."
The biennial competition between the United States and Europe was, like all other sporting events during this time, grappling with the ideas of playing with limited spectators or none at all, postponing or canceling the three-day event at Whistling Straits.
Given the uncertainty of the situation less than three months before the scheduled event, PGA of America officials decided to postpone it to next year after negotiating with the PGA Tour to move the Presidents Cup.
The idea of a spectator-less Ryder Cup was particularly unappealing to many of those who would take part in it.
U.S. captain Steve Stricker and European captain Padraig Harrington both expressed disappointment with the possibility, though Harrington came around to the idea of "taking one for the team'' in order for the European Tour to reap the financial rewards of a televised competition.
Many players did not like the idea of proceeding with a closed Ryder Cup, particularly Rory McIlroy.
"The players are the ones that make the Ryder Cup," the European star said in May. "If they are not on board with it and don't want to play, then there is no Ryder Cup. I see it being pushed back until 2021, and honestly, I think that will be the right call."
It was not an easy call. First, there was the matter of forgoing significant television rights fees this year, spectators or not. The PGA of America is already scheduled to play the PGA Championship, held August 6-9, without fans, a huge financial hit to the organization of 28,000 club professionals.
Then there was the issue of moving a European Ryder Cup, scheduled for Italy in 2022, back a year. The European Tour relies significantly on profits from home Ryder Cups to operate on an annual basis.
Not to be forgotten is the PGA Tour. Although the tour has no stake in the Ryder Cup, its players are participants. After taking a huge financial hit in 2020 and losing millions of dollars because of a 13-week break from tournament golf, the idea of forgoing a lucrative Presidents Cup could not have been pleasant. It is unclear whether a financial arrangement between the PGA of America and PGA Tour was reached.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spearheaded the effort to get the various golf bodies together in April to map out a schedule, allowing the major championships to pick their dates, with the PGA Tour then working its schedule around them. For example, the August 6-9 PGA Championship dates were originally held by the Wyndham Championship; the tour subsequently moved it and the three FedEx Cup playoff events to be a week later on its revised schedule.
PGA Tour events were also scheduled for the weeks of the U.S. Open (September 17-20) and the Masters (November 12-15).
Part of the long process to get to this point was to rework various contracts the PGA of America, PGA Tour and European Tour had with vendors, hotels and myriad other entities involved in putting on big sporting events.
The Ryder Cup, which began in 1927 and is played every other year, was not played from 1939 through 1945 -- a period of four Cups -- because of World War II. It was postponed one other time in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The tournament was pushed back a year, and the Presidents Cup followed.
"I want a Ryder Cup with full capacity," England's Paul Casey said last month as this decision loomed. "I want it with screaming fans. I saw the headlines. ... I fully support that. Even as a European, knowing how loud that would be for the American team, that's what I want. We want to play a Ryder Cup in that environment, in that cauldron, and [postponing] is the right thing to do."
-- Bob Harig (ESPN Senior Writer)
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