LET BATTLE COMMENCE

Bill Elliott runs the rule over the course, the captains and the potential teams as Europe prepare to head across the pond to defend the Ryder Cup

- Bill Elliott

Onward, onward we go chums. After a unique sprint of Majors since The Masters last November, we now hurtle towards the biggest fun week of all, the Ryder Cup. A year late – and all the more welcome for that painful delay – the 43rd matches betwixt the USA and Europe will certainly offer a vivid contrast to the hurly-burliness of the 2018 rumble at Le Golf National, the Eiffel Tower a backdrop, cosmopolitan Paris a hectic staging post for everyone concerned.

It’s not that the imaginative jousting field that is Whistling Straits is inferior; it is not. It is, however, somewhat quieter. Perched on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, this Wisconsin course is also near, well, not a lot. Wisconsin, after all, is known as America’s dairyland, with cows and sheep aplenty. It comes with a huge reputation for producing great cheese, although those of us who have actually tasted American cheese may narrow our eyes a little at this particular accolade.

Whatever your own cheesy thoughts on this, it is beyond doubt that Whistling Straits is one of the very best courses created anywhere in the second half of the 20th century, designed and built by, for me and many others, the greatest designer of this period. Pete Dye died last year aged 94, but what a legacy he left behind – courses like TPC Sawgrass and the Ocean course at Kiawah Island.

Shortly before Kiawah was completed I spent a couple of hours with him, walking the course and playing some holes. He was both eccentric and fascinating; his mission statement was to build courses that were different, visually brilliant and deceptive. He also liked them to be the brutal side of challenging if you failed to recognise the subtlety. No wonder he was hailed as the Picasso of golf design.