ROME — It took a day and half (and one timely tweet), but the United States found its rallying cry at the 2023 Ryder Cup as the event itself found its footing. And all of this happened because of … a hat.
Rather, it happened because of the absence of one.
Midday Saturday, a report surfaced that Patrick Cantlay, who had neither won nor halved a match before the afternoon four-ball session, created a fracture in the U.S. locker room with his decision to go hatless this week in protest of players not being paid for their participation in the Ryder Cup. Whether that report was true (it was not) is almost besides the point because the publication of a single tweet completely changed the tone and tenor of this Ryder Cup.
As Cantlay plodded along Marco Simone in his ensuing four-ball match with Wyndham Clark against Rory McIlroy & Matt Fitzpatrick, fans sang and danced and waved their caps at him. Paul Azinger called the report “garbage” and “clickbait” on NBC’s broadcast. Yet, the story became a thing.
The fact that it spread so quickly around the property proves the power of social media. For most of the day, it seemed like a fairly amusing, benign Ryder Cup moment that was a bit emblematic of the historical American performance in Europe. At one point during Cantlay’s match, a group of fans started singing, “We’ll play you every week. We’ll play you every week.” The confident European fans were having some jolly fun at the Americans’ expense, a practice as old as Ryder Cups themselves.
Then came the 18th hole.
With the final match of the day tied, Cantlay poured in a bomb and exploded in celebration. It became clear the normally-placid Cantlay had been affected throughout the day by the chanting and singing. His caddie, Joe LaCava, even got into a kerfuffle with Rory McIlroy by staying on the green and celebrating a bit too long.
What was LaCava doing? Waving his hat back at the…
Source : cbssports
