AFTER WHAT WAS a distinctly forgettable first full season in charge, Ulster head coach Richie Murphy is determined to achieve substantial improvement from his squad who finished up a lowly 14th in the URC table last time out.

The northern province host the Dragons on Friday in the first round of league games and while Murphy remains optimistic that marquee signing Juarno Augustus might make the match squad, he is primarily looking to open with the right result against the side who finished bottom last May.

“We want to build some consistency in our performances,” said the Ulster coach.

“Within some games last year, we were up and down, so we can’t have that,” added Murphy who now has a familiar coaching ticket around him from his time at Ireland U20s.

The hope is that with the addition of Mark Sexton as attack coach and now having had a full pre-season with defence coach Willie Faloon – who stepped up midway through last season – will result in greater cohesiveness and consistency on the pitch.

“A lot of work’s gone in around our defence, which obviously last season wasn’t good enough and we’ve done a lot of work on the attack side of the ball as well.

“Willie (Faloon) has now had that six months or probably five months in that role. Coming into the pre-season, it was an opportunity to restart that side of the ball and bring it in a slightly different direction.

“What we’re hoping,” stated Murphy, “is that you’ll see a more aggressive defensive line.

And then focusing on Sexton, the head coach stated: “He’s (Sexton) added a new dimension. We haven’t really changed hugely what we were doing in attack, but what we’ve done is that we’ve probably tidied up and clarified how we want to do it.

“(We’ve been) Showing them some good pictures and the guys have responded well. Mark has had a big impact since coming in.

With a robust review of last season now in the rear-view mirror, Murphy is now eager to change the narrative at Ulster.

“It’s still very obvious that in certain positions we have inexperienced players,” he said.
“We’ve got young, talented players, but they don’t have massive experience. In other areas, we have loads of experience, and they’re the people that we have to lean on in those situations.

“Getting the balance right for each match is going to be huge.”

TOMMY FLEETWOOD HAS urged his European team-mates to embrace “the most extreme atmosphere” in golf at the Ryder Cup this week.

Much has been made of the hostile reception the visiting side are likely to encounter as they take on the United States in front of a partisan and boisterous New York crowd at Bethpage Black.

Yet as one of the most experienced members of the team, with a significant American victory at last month’s Tour Championship under his belt, Fleetwood is not too concerned about what lies in store.

The 34-year-old said: “The home crowd is a big part of what makes the Ryder Cup so special, so unique to us.

“That energy, that passion and that home team environment is something that plays such a big part in the Ryder Cup, and I think you have to embrace that, enjoy it and look forward to it, even when you’re the away team.

“I’m kind of looking forward to that. It’s great to soak up that atmosphere.

“When it’s ‘go time’, when it’s time to play, I think it’s like every other tournament except this one is hyped up.

“I try to get into my bubble as much as possible, especially when I’m coming in to play my shots.

“That’s no different in the Ryder Cup – it’s just an extreme atmosphere. It’s the most extreme atmosphere that we get.”

As part of the preparations for the event, Europe captain Luke Donald issued the members of his team with virtual reality headsets programmed with course layout and an abusive crowd.

Much has been made of the initiative but veteran Justin Rose played down the significance.

The 45-year-old, who is playing in his seventh Ryder Cup, said: “I think the VR headsets have been a thing but, for me personally, it was a great idea but I wouldn’t say I’ve spent more than five minutes using them.

“It was worth doing, for sure, but (it was) a soft serving of it, let’s put it that way.”

Fleetwood admits the nerves likely to be experienced at the first tee are not something that can be replicated.

He said: “No matter what you do, nothing prepares you for a Friday morning on the first tee of the Ryder Cup.

“We’ll still come away from this week with stories of first tee nerves and things like that. It’s something that you’ve got to embrace.”

Gavin Cooney

reports from Bethpage Black, New York

WELCOME TO THE Ryder Cup, where money doesn’t talk, it yells Geddinthaholeee.

This event is so drenched in dollars it’s a bit bizarre that among the main talking points is the fact the American team are being paid for their appearance this week.

You’ll remember Pat without the Hat and all that business at Rome two years ago, when Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir reported that the American team room was fractured by an argument as to whether they should be paid for their appearances. Cantlay reportedly played without a hat in protest, which was the cue for thousands of European fans to doff their hats at him and sing, “Hats off, for your bank account.” 

Cantlay denied the story, saying that he didn’t wear the hat as it didn’t fit him. Two years later, though, Cantlay is roaming around Bethpage beneath a baseball cap and with another half a million dollars to his name. 

The American players are each being paid $500,000 to play this week by the PGA of America, the tournament’s co-organiser. $300,000 of this is to be donated to charity, while the players’ have been given another $200,000 “stipend.”

This is not unprecedented: each of the American players have been given $200,000 for their chosen charity since 1999. (20% of the PGA of America’s revenues are also paid to the PGA Tour, the elitist professional organisation currently doling out such eye-watering sums of money to the players on show this week.)

Keegan Bradley has said the American players are going to give their bonus 200k to charity too, though only Cantlay has actually identified the destination of his extra cash. The American players have braced at this line of questioning from European journalists all week, with Scottie Scheffler sarcastically calling it an “issue”, making his point with an accompanying rabbit ears gesture. 

What is striking about all of this is the sheer pointlessness of it all: the Americans have fought for a relatively insignificant sum of money that they are now being guilted into giving to charity anyway. 

The grandee of American golf punditry, Brandel Chamblee, has lamented the fact that America’s multi-millionaires can’t forsake money for just one week every second year, for the honour of representing their country. 

The Europeans, by contrast, are claiming the high moral ground. Luke Donald says he phoned each of his 12 players asking whether they wanted to be paid this week, and all 12 independently told him no. Paul McGinley – Chamblee’s co-anchor on Golf Channel and an adviser to Donald and his team – has this week been acting as a kind of European ambassador to the United States and says the Europeans have chosen to be on the right side of history. 

“That puts us on the right side of it and it bonds us with the European fans”, said McGinley. “Personally, I think they have made a massive mistake to push for this considering how much money is in the game.” 

Europe have also been floating their hopes that the New York crowd will turn against their players if the Europeans make a fast start, with the payments providing the ignition for grievance.  

It’s a seductive parable, we have to say, that those greedy Americans continue to care only about themselves while the Europeans continue to park their own egos to corral around a larger, more honourable purpose.  But the whole story is also a testament to pro golf’s incredible ability to compartmentalise its own morality. 

This may also be the reason the Europeans are so concerned about the hostility of the home crowd: the noise they make might frighten Europe’s high horses away. 

Yes the players haven’t collected payment, but that’s not the only money Europe have thus far left on the table. They DP World Tour, for instance, haven’t yet collected the fines owed by LIV defectors Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, for instance, a penalty for their decision to jump ship to the Saudi-backed circuit. Both have appealed the fines – as is their right – but that appeal will conveniently be heard after this Ryder Cup. 

There’s nothing wrong with the European team deciding they want Rahm and Hatton, but it’s a double standard given the previous sidelining of their LIV-joining elders, including Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, and Henrik Stenson, who lost the captaincy to Donald ahead of Rome for his move. 

All of the above appeared in Europe’s terrific hype video paying homage to all of the past European players to have won on American soil, where these awkward kinks in the lineage were not remotely acknowledged. 

To make the American players the avatars of American greed would be also to do a grave disservice to the awesome disengenuousness of the marketing of this week’s venue. Bethpage Black is a public course, and New Yorkers can play a full 18 holes for the guts of $75. And in a true exhibit of meritocracy, its all done on a first-come-first-served basis. You park your car in a numbered spot the night before you want to play, sleep it out overnight and then wait your turn from dawn.

Hence the slogan at the entrance, describing Bethpage as “The People’s Country Club.” 

The sign greeting visitors at the Ryder Cup. Alamy Stock Photo


Alamy Stock Photo

Alas the Ryder Cup has destroyed this spirit by pricing the cheapest ticket for tournament days at $750 a pop. (For context, a Friday ticket in Rome two years ago were around $264.)  Once you’re inside the gates, meanwhile, the cheapest beer you’ll buy is a 350ml can for $12. Pints are priced at $15.

Despite all of this, we have frequently heard this week heralded on broadcasts as “the people’s Ryder Cup.”

The truth is that this Ryder Cup is another of Wall Street’s playground. 

Hence why it feels rather churlish to pick a dozen American golfers as the sole incarnation of golf’s mighty greed.