The Ryder Cup opening ceremony is usually a comical exercise in unnecessary pomp. The one useful purpose of the ceremony is the announcement of lineups for the first session on Friday morning. That, as it should, takes only a couple minutes and the crowd and teams react as we discover counterparts to start the cup.
This standing ovation for Tiger Woods at the Ryder Cup was a legitimately cool moment
The usually weird and boring Opening Ceremony had one notable moment that made you feel things.
But aside from that, it’s an hour or so of performances, highfalutin remarks, and a introduction of the teams that we already know. Remember that weird ass poem Justin Timberlake read at the 2012 Ryder Cup opening ceremony? This thing usually just makes news for some awkward photo or two or a musical performance that flops.
The 2018 ceremony, however, did deliver one genuinely cool moment. Tiger Woods is playing in the Ryder Cup for the first time in six years. He’s here fresh off his first win in five years. He made the team fully on merit, something that seemed improbable at the start of this year. So when Jim Furyk announced the roster and got to Tiger, who was last alphabetically, the crowd lost it and gave him an ovation well beyond the cursory claps that almost every other player received.
It was a crescendo that almost, on its own, made the ceremony worth it. This came from an away game crowd in Paris no less:
Woods’ name would be called several minutes and an awkward musical performance later when Fuyrk announced the Friday morning four-ball lineup. Tiger will play in the anchor match of the session alongside Patrick Reed. Between those two, the crowd will definitely be loudest and deepest at that final match against Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood.
Whatever you think of Tiger and whether he’s deserving of such a response, it at least added a notable moment to this ceremony. Now we can’t wait to see what it’s like when he actually starts playing matches again.
