Grown Men Dressed as Vikings Ready to Cheer (and Sing) for Team USA at Ryder Cup

They are the 'American Marshals' and they're back for their seventh straight Ryder Cup.

Jeff Ritter | Sep 23, 2021

Grown Men Dressed as Vikings Ready to Cheer (and Sing) for Team USA at Ryder Cup /

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Whistling Straits sits right in the heart of Green Bay Packers country, but the Vikings are in town this week, too.

They call themselves the American Marshals, and they are a U.S. "superfan" group that will no doubt gobble up screen time this weekend for their outrageous costumes (Uncle Sam meets Attila the Hun) and their personalized ballads, which they're prepared to belt out from various vistas in the bleachers.

Here's a preview.

Thirteen men from the Minneapolis area comprise the group, and they credit the late Flip Saunders, who coached the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, as the founding member. This is their seventh straight Ryder Cup, dating back to Valhalla in 2008, and their legend has grown along the way. (They even have a website.) They've become a familiar presence at Ryder Cups — both in the stands and in the team rooms.

"(Steve) Stricker knows us. (Davis) Love knows us," said Cal Franklin, Marshals team captain, while strolling Whistling Straits on Thursday. "We even gave Stricker horns and a jersey. They all know we're here."

Soon about 50,000 fans, plus an international TV audience, will see them once again.

Published Sep 23, 2021

JEFF RITTER

Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business's growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.