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I’m not sure who started it or even how we got here. I think it was the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome when the derogatory “boys club” term began getting thrown around.
That was the team Spieth was on when he could have been left off. The team JT was on when he needed a life preserver from ZJ. The Boys Club.
I defended it then and will continue to do so now.
This is once again a talking point. This time on … the European side? Kind of?
Here’s what Joseph LaMagna wrote recently.
I regret to inform those eager to poke holes in Team Europe’s ostensibly infallible process that this is no boys’ club. The reality is that the lack of churn isn’t a byproduct of a proclivity towards buddy ball. The pack of unfamiliar faces didn’t make strong enough cases to replace the incumbents. Who, exactly, are you taking someone like Harry Hall, Matt Wallace, or Marco Penge over?
Fried Egg
I agree with JLM (and his colleague PJ Clark calling it a lads club), but here’s my argument: Even if it IS a boys club — even if Hall or Wallace or Penge had “done enough” — I don’t know that they should have been considered.
Why?
Golf is a meritocracy but team sports are not. You, like me, probably played team sports growing up or have coached your kids in recent years. Here’s a question: Do you want to play with (or coach) the kid who’s a 10 but whose attitude and energy are a 1? Or would you rather play with (or coach) the kid who’s an 8 but whose attitude and energy are a 10?
It’s not even a question.
And while golf is still an individual sport, we’ve watched enough of these events to know — we know this — that team golf is not an individual sport.
Continuity and cohesiveness is a smart way to win a Ryder Cup. It’s not always possible (see Homa, Max), but it is definitely preferred.
Remember the Luke Donald quote after Paris?
“The Americans were amazingly strong on paper,” said Luke Donald, one of Europe’s vice captains. “But Ryder Cups are just different than individual championships.
“They are about team chemistry, team bonding and finding the right partnerships. And we obviously had a lot of help being at home on a course we’re very familiar with.”
NYT
One thousand times yes.
So yeah, people will continue to berate the boys club or the blokes club or the lads club or whatever you want to call it, but all else being close to equal, this is the entire point of having captains picks, of being able to choose who you want on your squad.
Not only do I find the term to not be derogatory, I find it to (usually) be the best way of picking a golf team for a three day event! This can get taken too far, obviously. You usually can’t pick guys that are just awful at golf (JT is maybe the only exception, and even he wasn’t as bad as was indicated — he was the 24th ranked American at the time). And you can have a boys club with the wrong boys in it.
But I find it amusing and a bit ironic that many Euros clowned on the U.S. for its boys club when that’s what they have been doing (to tremendous success) for many, many years.
