This week, two dueling golf tournaments more than 5,000 miles apart are getting exposure boosts from becoming de facto training camps for the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams.
With the highly anticipated biennial team event at Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York now just two weeks away, players from each squad are gathering together for one more competitive tournament before the Ryder Cup.
Ten of the 12 U.S. Ryder Cup team members are in the field at the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship in Napa, a $6 million event that’s part of the FedEx Cup Fall series typically reserved for golfers looking to keep their PGA Tour card for the following season. LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau, who is ineligible to compete, and Xander Schauffele, whose wife recently gave birth, are the only U.S. team members not playing. U.S. captain Keegan Bradley is on-site but not competing.
At the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship in Wentworth, England, 11 of the 12 European Ryder Cup team members, and captain Luke Donald, are competing. Sepp Straka, whose wife gave birth in August, is the only player not in the field. The BMW typically has a strong international field, though, with a $9 million purse.
Both tournament organizers worked with the respective Ryder Cup teams to pair teammates together for the first two rounds. In Napa, all 10 Team USA players are playing in four consecutive groups, and Golf Channel’s three-hour coverage window is different on each day—6–9 p.m. ET on Thursday and 1–4 p.m. ET on Friday—to maximize Ryder Cup player exposure.
Larger-than-normal crowds are expected in Napa, as the Ryder Cup presence has added 10 players from the top 22 in the world rankings to the field. Last year’s Procore Championship had just five of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. In England, it’s the first time the BMW PGA has completely sold out of tickets for the second, third, and final rounds of competition.
