MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — The objective for the home team in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup is to get up early in the matches and ride the momentum of the crowd. The common phrase heard at these competitions is to get a lot of red — or blue (Europe) or gold (International) — on the board.
U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker tried to stack the top of his Sunday lineup while trailing by three points and said, “We've got some studs up there at the top of the lineup that
are going to go out there and hopefully put a bunch of red on the board.”
It used to be an actual thing. Now it's a figure of speech.
There were no boards at Medinah.
It's a recent trend, at the Ryder Cup in Europe, and now the Presidents Cup. Organizers are leaning on video boards across the golf course that show a mixture of results and video of other matches.
But to get a sense of the score requires being there long enough for the screen to change.
The stationary boards — similar to what's found at the majors — used to have all the matches and the score in red, blue or gold to indicate who was leading. Spectators knew, players knew, momentum was created.
Boards were noticeably missing in France in the 2018 Ryder Cup. Kerry Haigh, the chief competitions officer at the PGA of America, also noticed them missing and said that would not be the case in U.S. matches. There have been boards at Whistling Straits and Bethpage Black.
The PGA Tour had 20 video boards across Medinah, eight with content such as real-time scoring, graphics and video, 12 with PGA Tour content.
For the players, noise was good enough without the visual.
“More than anything I want to hear the crowd going. The crowd can tell you what’s going on,” Snedeker said Saturday. “We had a great crowd today. I heard a lot of roars out there. It was exciting. I don’t think we need boards; I think we need crowds.”
He went on to say that “what's on the board doesn't matter” because players should be paying attention to the match in front of them.
As for no standard boards, International captain Geoff Ogilvy pointed to his radio to let his players know what was going on, if the pockets of occasional cheers wasn't enough.
“They ask us what’s happening, and I guess we text the leaderboard on the phone if there’s no board there, like we do,” Ogilvy said. “We’re all communicating about what’s going on in other matches. Some of the guys don’t care like what the other matches are doing.”
He also said Sunday that it was tough getting scores to load on the phone because of so many people in the crowd using their phone at the same time.
Butch Harmon and Dottie Pepper, who came close to induction two years ago for the World Golf Hall of Fame, are among 14 who have been announced as finalists for the 2027 induction class.
A new system had the nominees broken down into four groups — men, women, contributors and historic figures and amateurs. Nominating committees for each group narrowed the list to four men, four men, three contributors and three from the historical figures and amateurs.
Jim Furyk, Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Corey Pavin are the men's finalists. Pepper is joined as a finalist by Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr and Liselotte Neumann. Harmon is in the contributor's category with CBS announcer Jim Nantz and British golf course architect Harry Colt. The final group has amateur great Jay Sigel, Canadian amateur Alexa Stirling and British golfer Ted Ray.
A 24-member panel will vote on the induction class later this fall. The induction ceremony is scheduled for July 12 during the week of the British Open at St. Andrews.
Golf Saudi has announced a multiyear commitment to women's golf with a tournament called “The Championship,” to be played next week in Britain with a $4 million purse that will be co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
“The partnership builds on Golf Saudi’s backing of women’s golf since 2020 — part of a strategy to grow the game of golf and support women’s sport on the world stage and in the Kingdom,” Golf Saudi said in a news release.
Left out was how it was eliminating tournaments the Public Investment Fund supported, mainly on the Ladies European Tour, one on the LPGA. The Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek north of Las Vegas will not be on the LPGA schedule next year.
The LET had the PIF Global Series that had 29 tournaments dating to 2021. This year's Global Series had five tournaments with $15 million in total prize money.
The Saudi-backed series has delivered 29 events since it began in 2021.
The 2026 PIF Global Series included five events and a total of $15 million in purses, which, without the two majors, represents more than half of the LET’s total prize funds. Only three regular tournaments on the LET schedule were $1 million or more, not including majors.
Instead, Golf Saudi said it would sponsor the season points race with a bonus at the end. It did not say how much the bonus would be.
PIF announced in April it was done funding the LIV Golf League.
The Americans had a clear advantage from a loud and boisterous crowd at Medinah, and the International team will be expecting the same at Kingston Heath in Australia in 2028.
It wasn't always like that. Adam Scott, who has played in all of the Presidents Cups since his debut in South Africa in 2003, said the turning point for the International team in these matches was 2019 at Royal Melbourne, and not just because of the shield that gave the Internationals some identity.
Scott felt it was the first time the crowd was loud for the Internationals, and against the Americans.
“It's probably the most support I've ever felt at the Presidents Cup — obviously because of Australia, but there was turn there for the International team,” he said. "A lot of years, somewhat rightly so, when we went to South Korea and they saw Tiger and Phil (Mickelson), they don’t normally see these guys. So they’ve come to see them. But it was meant to be our home game.”
Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler are the only Americans to be in every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup since 2021. Scheffler (9-12-4) is the only one with a losing record in the six matches. ...Chad Coleman has left the LPGA after less than a year as chief marketing officer. The LPGA said he wanted to spend more time with his family. Coleman had been the chief brand officer at Dude Perfect. The LPGA hired Taylor Strick to lead the marketing. It also hired Ryan Ogle to oversee operations of the Solheim Cup at Valhalla in 2028 and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida. Ogle also had been director of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla. ... The Americans head to Ireland for a chance to win the PGA Cup between club pros from the U.S. against Britain and Ireland. The Americans have won three in a row.
Stewart Cink (five) and Zach Johnson (six) have combined to win half of the 22 tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions schedule this year.
“It's tough at the end like this. I'm sure it would be amazing at the end the other way.” — Geoff Ogilvy, Presidents Cup captain of the International team that hasn't won since 1998.
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