As Jon Rahm’s Ryder Cup situation festers and the European Tour Group tussles with one of their stars, Justin Thomas accidentally reminded the world what we’ve been deprived of in the name of…money.
It’s a touchy one that Europeans never want to hear about. Or worse, turns into a lecture about how the Ryder Cup funds all they do, as if the DP World Tour is primarily a humanitarian operation that just happens to play golf tournaments, too.
“St Andrews, I consider, is gold,” Thomas declared on the latest episode of The Smylie Show. “I would love—I just don’t see how it’s physically possible—but somehow, someway, for a Ryder Cup at St Andrews,” the two-time PGA champion declared.
“There’s no way that could happen, but could you just imagine how sick that would be, and matches somehow coming down the Road Hole and coming down to 18? It would be epic, just so epic.”
Actually, as The Quad laid out a few years ago, it can work and work better than a 144-player stroke play event. The hole sequencing, the strategies involved, and the footprint seen during massive Opens in St Andrews prove the Old Course is a better course and likely as lucrative as any course currently scheduled to host the Ryder Cup. The 2023 Walker Cup demonstrated how incredible the Old Course can be when it’s the third protagonist in a high-stakes match.
Only one thing is preventing epic scenes of watching multiple matches out by the Eden Estuary. Or the dream scenario Thomas outlined: a Ryder Cup coming down to the Road hole on a crisp mid-September day.
Money.
You know, the very thing 2025’s European team did not required to turn up at Bethpage. And the same hurdle that’s driving the stalemate with Rahm. The tour wants its fine money and Rahm to play two events of their choosing becaapply he took LIV money.
Europe’s Ryder Cup model relies on a lavish package of government and course owner incentives to land the event. Typically, a few years of a forobtaintable DP World Tour stop are thrown in so everyone can study the forobtaintably overbuilt stinkers that only a Ryder Cup can create people pay to play.
Does anyone really want to go back to The Belfry, K Club, Celtic Manor, the PGA Centenary at Gleneagles, or in 2031, a real estate development called Camiral Golf & Wellness? (At least Versailles’ Le Golf National and Rome’s Marco Simone were redesigned with match play in mind, while 2027’s Adare Manor exudes none of the commercial desperation seen with past rich-guy places.)
St Andrews lacks a wealthy benefactor seeing to juice real estate sales or fill up a resort by hosting a Ryder Cup. The town already has a DP World Tour stop, the annual Alfred Dunhill Links. Its Links Trust operation has a full tee sheet, thriving golf economy, and a date with The Open every five years.
So if the Europeans want to prove that they’re not about the money, how about a 2035 Ryder Cup in St Andrews? It would fall between Opens in 2032 and 2037. Even better, Justin Thomas will be 41 and probably ready to accept an inevitable Captaincy. He’ll sing the praises of St Andrews and the European Tour Group for prioritizing venue over vig.
Otherwise, spare us the lectures next time there’s the temptation to jump on those high horses and single out Legion XIII’s Jon Rahm.
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