World No. 1 Rory McIlroy said that he would prefer that this year’s Ryder Cup be postponed until next year rather than stage the event with no fans present due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The golf calendar has been ravaged by the novel coronavirus, with the Masters, the US Open and the PGA Championship postponed, and The Open Championship canceled altogether.
The Ryder Cup is scheduled to take place from Sept. 25 to 27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, but there are doubts that it can go ahead as planned.
Photo: AFP
The absence of spectators would ruin the spectacle of the two-yearly event, McIlroy said
“I get the financial implications for everyone involved,” McIlroy said in an Instagram live talk with equipment company TaylorMade.
“There’s a lot that goes into putting on the Ryder Cup that people don’t appreciate, but having a Ryder Cup without fans is not a Ryder Cup,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be a great spectacle, there’d be no atmosphere, so if it came to whether they had to choose between not playing the event or playing it without fans, I would say just delay it a year and play it in 2021,” he added.
“Obviously it would be better for the Europeans to play without fans, because we wouldn’t have to deal with some of the stuff you have to put up with, but at the same time it’s not a Ryder Cup,” McIlroy said.
“If they do delay it until 2021, the next Ryder Cup is in Italy, and we know how badly Italy was affected by coronavirus, so it gives them an extra year to prepare for the event in 2023,” he said.
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