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The Ryder Cup moves Midwest: what the top pros of Europe and the U.S. will face as they go head-to-head at Michigan's Oakland Hills

Chief Executive, The, August-Sept, 2004 by Michael Patrick Shiels

When the Ryder Cup is held on American soil in September, for a change it won't be played at one of a handful of famous East Coast courses. Instead, the PGA of America will host the riveting biennial matches between the top professionals from the United States and Europe at an equally storied venue in the Midwest: Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit.

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The matches, which are alternately held in Europe and the U.S., haven't been staged as far west since Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis hosted them back in 1971. So, after stints on this side of the pond in places such as the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, S.C., and the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., what made the PGA choose Oakland Hills? The answers are: the caliber of the golf course, the history of the club and Michigan's sometimes overlooked prominence in the game.

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"The PGA of America is known for taking events to America's greatest courses," says Bob Gigliotti, a longtime Oakland Hills member. "We've had a great golf tradition since 1916. It makes sense that the most exciting event in golf would eventually be played here."

From rather sleepy beginnings, the Ryder Cup has become stirring theater. An English seed merchant named Samuel Ryder created the matches in 1927 as a goodwill exhibition between the best golfers in the U.S. and those of Britain. For decades, America dominated the competition, prompting the British team in 1973 to begin drawing players from Ireland as well. Six years later, the team cast its net even wider, to include golfers from all of Europe. Soon the matches became hotly contested, as the Europeans twice won the cup during the '80s and, as defending champions, retained it a third time by playing to a tie. Overall, the U.S. maintains a commanding lead, with 24 victories, eight defeats and two ties. But over the past 20 years, Europe holds the edge, five victories to four, with two ties.

As the matches have become more competitive, goodwill at times has given way to gamesmanship. There have been fiery contests, such as the 1991 matches in Kiawah Island. The Americans (some of whom wore camouflage caps) fought to regain the cup after it had spent eight years in European hands. When German Bernhard Langer missed a 4-foot putt on the final hole, the U.S. had won what became known as "The War at the Shore."

Controversy stirred again in 1999 at The Country Club, where the Americans pulled off a stunning comeback capped by Justin Leonard's 45-foot putt to defeat Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain. The moment went down in history not just for the pivotal putt but also for the unbridled celebration that ensued, as the American players, their wives, spectators and television crews rushed the green--stepping into the putting line of Olazabal, who still had a putt to halve the hole.

With the Europeans having extracted revenge at The Belfry in England in 2002 (the matches were postponed for a year after 9/11), the intensity has only increased for this year's Ryder Cup, which will be played Sept. 17-19. As usual, the Americans, led by Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, appear to have the stronger team. But if history is any guide, how the teams match up on paper may bear little weight on what actually unfolds.

The only certainty is that the golfers will be playing on a course that will seriously challenge them. Padraig Harrington of Ireland, who has played in the past two Ryder Cups, has described the experience as follows: "It's like a roller coaster or bungee jumping. As it's actually happening, you're thinking, 'Why am I doing this?' When it's finished, you think, 'Oh, that was great.'"

Oakland Hills is a much admired--and feared--golf course. Designed in 1918 by Donald Ross, the famed Scottish-born architect, the par-72 layout has been lengthened over the years to a hefty 7,105 yards. One of several historic courses in the Detroit area, it features deep rough and multi-tiered greens. "I think Oakland Hills will be a great match-play venue," says Langer, the nonplaying captain of the European team. "It has extremely difficult greens, and therefore you haven't won the hole just by hitting the green. There are many opportunities for three-putting or doing all sorts of weird things."

The host of many major championships, Oakland Hills secured its reputation during the 1951 U.S. Open, which was grittily won by Ben Hogan. After carving out a final-round 67--one of only two sub-par rounds during the entire 72-hole tournament--Hogan said, "I am glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees." Hogan also reportedly cornered the wife of Robert Trent Jones, the noted golf architect who had toughened Oakland Hills in advance of the tournament, and told her, "If your husband had to play this course for a living, he'd be on the bread line."

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In other words, this year's Ryder Cup contestants are in for quite a battle, against not only their opponents but also the golf course.