The Ryder Cup, a biennial competition between the twelve best golfers from America and Europe, was won by the United States yesterday. It was a dominant and historic win, with the U.S. scoring an unprecedented nineteen points; a remarkable performance by the most likeable group of golfers we’ve seen in ages.
But before we get to their brilliance as athletes – and yes, they are not only athletic, they are extraordinarily so – let’s review some other aspects of our 2021 Ryder Cup Team for which we should all be proud. And as we do so, consider some of the comparisons that could be made to American athletes in other sports and sports leagues, such as those in the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
They were motivated by what’s important
There are financial incentives for golfers to earn a spot on the Ryder Cup Team, but they are, in fact, not paid to golf. The Ryder Cup does not pay its participants. Sponsors offer huge incentives to golfers to make the team, and the subsequent increase in popularity that a player enjoys will yield inevitable financial benefits, but the players do not receive a salary or purse money for competing. So, what’s the driver (no pun intended) behind making the team and competing? Patriotism and love of country.
Ask any American golfer who has ever had the honor to play in a Ryder Cup, ‘What’s the most pressure you’ve ever felt on a golf course?’ and the answer is likely to involve a Ryder Cup performance. The reason why players feel so much pressure is because they view the prospect of failure as not only letting down themselves and their teammates, but their country as well. They care about succeeding at the Ryder Cup perhaps more so than at any other competition. Has Colin Kaepernick ever cared about anyone other than himself during a football game? Is Megan Rapinoe more concerned with her team and country winning a soccer game when she’s on the field, or is she looking to draw attention to herself and her pet causes?
They ‘look like America’
The left is always focused on identity politics, and they like to cite their expectation that every group of people should ‘look like America,’ which is code for ‘don’t have too many white guys.’ Having diversity for diversity’s sake is much more important than something as trivial as competence. We can be proud that our Ryder Cup Team was indeed diverse, but not because the left was able to wield influence over its make-up. Our Ryder Cup Team was diverse because it just so happened that the identities of the twelve best American players happened to be diverse.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 72% of Americans are ‘white.’ Our Ryder Cup Team this year was almost perfectly aligned with that demographic, with nine of the twelve players (75%) being white, and three of the twelve (25%) being non-white (Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, and Xander Schauffele), or as a woke leftist might say, ‘BIPOC.’ And it’s worth pointing out, none of those three players were named Tiger Woods, who suffered severe injuries in a car crash earlier this year. Are any other prominent sports teams/leagues so closely aligned to our national demographics? Do any of them look more ‘like America?’ Also, please note: there was zero diversity on the European Team. They didn’t have a single non-white/BIPOC player.
They’re young
The oldest player on the U.S. Team was Dustin Johnson at just 37 years old, and the average age of the U.S. player is 29 years old. America has now won two of the last three Ryder Cups, after having struggled mightily for the previous 2+ decades, and the youth of our team is cause for real optimism. We’re young, we’re good, and our future is bright, and along with that youth comes exuberance.
Not only was the U.S. team fun to watch because of their mastery of the game, they were enjoyable because of the amount of fun they had. That excitement and sheer joy that we saw can’t help but warm your heart. We witnessed wonderful things with this year’s team, and we can expect similar sights in the coming years.
They embody American Exceptionalism
That term is a dirty word for the left. “We’re not great, we were never great,” to paraphrase Andrew Cuomo. But yes… we are great. We are the greatest country that has ever existed, and our 2021 Ryder Cup Team is indicative of that exceptionalism.
Is that an overreaction? It is just golf, after all. You might think the statement is overly dramatic, but it’s not. When we compete at the Ryder Cup, we compete as a country; a nation. You must come from the United States to play on our team. Yet, we’re competing against a team from a continent, not a country. This year’s European Team had competitors from Ireland, Great Britain, Spain, Norway, and Austria, and in years past they’ve had members from a variety of other countries, including Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and Sweden. It’s not ‘Us against the world,’ but it’s not far off. And not only do we compete, we compete well; and this past weekend we utterly dominated.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t enjoy golf, if you missed this weekend’s Ryder Cup competition you missed a marvelous spectacle, and you missed an opportunity to observe true American greatness. We had a great bunch of you men play their hearts out and win the coveted Ryder Cup for their country. We witnessed fans chanting “USA, USA,” and players urging on those chants. There was no kneeling or turning their backs on their flag, like we saw certain Olympians do. There was no one casting shame on our country or pointing out how bad we are for things that happened 156 years ago.
There was fist-raising, but it wasn’t in protest, it was in jubilation.
There is much about modern American athletics to be disgusted by. The NBA’s coddling of their gravy train known as China. The NFL’s promotion of having two separate national anthems based on your melanin levels. And MLB’s kowtowing to ridiculous leftist opposition to improving election integrity. And many of the athletes in those sports don’t just accept the nonsense, they propel it. But our 2021 Ryder Cup Team gave us an opportunity to forget about those absurdities and focus on America as it should be. Unified, happy, and unparalleled. God bless the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup Team.
Content syndicated from TheBlueStateConservative.com with permission.
Amen!