As the Ryder Cup tees off for the first time in France today, golf is becoming a new focus of soft power diplomacy in an era of a US president who not only loves the links, but owns numerous courses.
The tournament that pits top US golfers against top Europeans is one of the last huge sports competitions still limited to Western nations from each edge of the Atlantic.
At a time when European relations with US President Donald Trump are increasingly complicated, the fairway photograph opportunities could be loaded with political metaphor.
Photo: AP
France — where fewer people play golf than play tennis, ride horses or practice judo — is a newcomer to hosting the Ryder Cup and wants to showcase its facilities before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It has been 25 years since a US team last won the Ryder Cup on European soil, but as well as marking a comeback for Tiger Woods, this Cup is also the last before Brexit.
“In the midst of Brexit negotiations — and a Brexit which is struggling to work out — the Ryder Cup is the chance to see Europeans together and united facing the US — that is a good image,” said Jean-Baptiste Guegan, a Paris-based lecturer on geopolitics and sport.
“Today, sporting imagery matters for the public, and that is what soft power is about. France is playing a lot on that. Seeing Europeans united under the same club flag is rare enough to stand out. At a moment when populism and Brexit are making themselves heard, that’s important,” he added.
Guegan said the Ryder Cup is also a chance for figures in diplomacy and business to mingle.
“The Ryder Cup is more than sport: It’s a barometer of the relationship between Europe and the US, a high-sponsorship event which allows you to see how the business world is faring,” Guegan said. “There will surely be an element of nationalism coming into play somewhere. For Donald Trump, this is one of the rare sports he plays. He’ll watch this event, he’ll make use of it.”
In January last year, Golf Digest magazine said that Trump is the 16th of the past 19 presidents to play golf and, with a 2.8 Handicap Index, the best.
Former French president Francois Mitterrand was a golfer, while French President Emmanuel Macron is known more for tennis, but Macron has supported the Ryder Cup organizers closely.
Golf diplomacy matters for Trump. He has played a few rounds with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made haste to Trump Tower after the 2016 election with a gift of a US$3,800 golden golf club.
US diplomat Richard Haas wrote in 2009 of what he called the “fairway theory of history”: how countries with numerous golf courses tend to be friendlier toward the US.
However, Pascal Boniface, director of Paris’ Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, said the idea does not hold today.
“Currently, there are very good relations between [North Korean leader] Kim Jung-un and Donald Trump. I don’t think there are a lot of golf courses in North Korea,” Boniface said.
He warned against loading too much political metaphor onto the Ryder Cup.
“Some might see in it a form of combat between Brussels and Washington — between European multilateralists and the US unilateralists of Donald Trump — but I doubt the different players who know each other and spend time together on the world circuit could have that antagonism,” he said.
As for golf bridging current European and US divides, he said: “Golf has a lot of virtues, but not that of changing Donald Trump’s mind, and that is really what counts in the relationship with the Europeans.”
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