“The cohesion of Europeans is simply greater”

Mr. Myskow, the Ryder Cup begins this Friday in Wisconsin. Why is this competition between professionals from the US and Europe more popular than any other golf tournament in the world?
I think for two reasons: First of all, it is a team competition, golf professionals rarely have this pleasure. There is also a whole lot of pride in playing for your own country or the continent. The players don’t know anything like that to that extent. And what makes the Ryder Cup so special are the emotions. Not just the player, but above all the audience. What’s going on there is usually only found in football in the fan curve. That’s really big cinema.

In Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia, you look after two players from the European team with your management agency. Then there is Europe’s Vice-Captain Luke Donald. Do you feel a particular tension in the athletes before such a Ryder Cup?
Everything is very well-timed for the players. You have no peace and quiet to do something else. You dedicate yourself to the team and otherwise the air becomes thin. It’s a very intense program. Paul Casey told me on Wednesday that he could already feel it in his bones.

Garcia is the most successful player in European Ryder Cup history on points. Why, like many other players from Europe recently, is he so often in top form in this competition?
That’s just the joy of this team competition because you don’t play for yourself, but for the others. Rory McIlroy put it very well when he said: We play for each other as a team.

But don’t the Americans do that too?
Yes, but they’re not that tight.

Why do you think that is the case?
I think the structure on the European tour is more useful to the team. An example: When a tournament takes place in the USA, the 156 professionals are given a car at the airport and drive it to their own hotel. Then they play their tournament and have a great week. They are individualists in the truest sense of the word and do their thing. The European Tour is structured differently. For example, there is an official player hotel and when the professionals arrive at the tournament location, there are often buses – maybe not in Corona times, but before that. And so you meet much more often, whether in the lobby or in the evening over dinner in the hotel. This is how friendships grow over the years, and people merge more on the European Tour. The cohesion is simply greater than with the Americans.

But Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia mostly play in the USA themselves.
But they don’t discard their DNA just because they live in New York or Florida. At the end of the day they are Irish or Spanish.

Nevertheless, it is astonishing that a team of Europeans – i.e. players from different nations – can develop a greater sense of cohesion than twelve Americans.
For me it is not for the reasons already mentioned. Europeans learn this solidarity right at the beginning of their careers, they also do something together. How often has a Sergio Garcia played tennis with a colleague? And that’s just an example.

This is one of the reasons why the Europeans have won nine of the past twelve Ryder Cups, although they were by no means always favorites. Again, at Whistling Straits Golf Course, anything but a US win would be a surprise.
The analysts among us will say that this would only be logical. Europe has Jon Rahm number one in the world and that’s it. Behind them are eight Americans in the top ten. That’s explaining everything. But I like to quote Bernhard Langer from his time as team captain: Thank God, we play like on the lawn and not on paper.

It is noticeable that the European team is very experienced with four players over 40 in the team. Are there no more young players who are pushing their way to the top of the world?
I wouldn’t sign it like that, let’s think of Viktor Hovland. And besides him there are many other great young faces in European golf. Germany’s Matthias Schmid, for example. If he doesn’t do everything wrong, he will have a great future. And having four old hands on the team at the Ryder Cup is a good thing and I see it as an advantage. Because they know what they are doing and can support the boys in many ways.

You have lived and worked in the USA for a long time, how important is the Ryder Cup there?
It actually wasn’t that big for a while. You could almost get the impression that they are losing their appetite because they always get their butts spanked by the Europeans. But I think the tide has turned again. We had the corona pandemic. In the meantime, no golf was played at all, and the Ryder Cup was postponed by a year. This is one of the reasons why interest in the USA is now gigantic again. How great the enthusiasm is is shown by the fact that in Whistling Straits the grandstands were already completely full during the practice rounds. You have to imagine this.

Germany is also represented at the Ryder Cup. Martin Kaymer did not qualify as a player, but is at the start as vice-captain for Europe. What is his job?
He is now at an age where he can give advice to other players. But it’s not just about advice, it’s about being present. If there is someone who has already won two majors and one of them on the golf course where the Ryder Cup is now taking place, then that’s something. And you shouldn’t forget that the players can remember almost every single stroke of their career. Kaymer can bring calmness or even talk to the Austrian Bernd Wiesberger in German. Such a vice-captain is definitely not just a water carrier.

Do you think that Kaymer will find his way back to old strength and be a contender for victories in the majors and thus also for the Ryder Cup team?
Absolutely. The sport of golf produces that. The list of those who have made a comeback is long. Lee Westwood is an example of this, Sergio Garcia has also been over 80 in the world rankings. And Martin is still a very young player by golf standards, so I don’t worry about that.

In two years the Ryder Cup will take place again in Europe, then in Italy at the gates of Rome. Germany had also applied for the next event with Bad Saarow, but was not accepted. Was money the main reason for this?
We all know that when the Ryder Cup takes place in Europe, it funds the European Tour. It is of course clear that there is great interest in getting as much money as possible into the coffers. I believe that the German application failed mainly because of the lack of political support. I would even argue that golf does not take place on the political level in Germany and is also not welcomed.

Why is golf skepticism so persistent in Germany? Does it take more successes for German players to change that?
I do not think so. Even if we had ten Kaymers, we would still be a long way from a golf boom.

The Ryder Cup could only take place in Germany in 2031 at the earliest. If there is an application at all. Should Bad Saarow be put back into the race because of its proximity to Berlin?
I don’t care where we play it. The main thing is that we play it. It is important that something is done for golf so that it gets a different face in Germany.

You will be commenting on the Ryder Cup on Sky TV from Friday to Sunday. Is the competition more emotional for you as a commentator than any other tournament?
I am totally emotionally charged, and mostly I don’t sit there anymore, but stand in the cabin. If you love sport, you can’t stay calm and relaxed. And I don’t even try to hide the fact that I am for Europe.