Inside the Chatter on Ryder Cup Earpieces: A Little Strategy, a Lot of Humor
The tailgating, flag-waving, fist-pumping adrenaline that goes part-and-parcel with the Ryder and Presidents Cups separate them from other golf events—including the major championships.
Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches are the sport's answer to college football or World Cup soccer, complete with all the tenacious trappings.
As well, the inflated atmosphere is not confined to galleries and fans. Inside the ropes, emotions also run high. Golf is built on morality and social integrity, but the match-play competition features a fair share of gamesmanship, bravado and spirited language.
Much of the strategic and colorful conversations take place over the headsets, worn throughout by captains and vice captains of the respective teams. The strategic insights, good-natured digs and editorial insults are not, by nature, for public consumption. Otherwise nothing would be said.
Phil Mickelson, a vice captain on the victorious 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team, remembers the comments sometimes can be brutal.
“It was a closed mic, so it was only like the vice captains,” Mickelson said at a PGA Tour Champions event in November 2021. “If I knew that it was going to be public—which it isn’t yet—I wouldn’t have said some of the things I did.”
Phil Mickelson wore an earpiece as a vice captain at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
However, swagger sometimes takes place right before your eyes. Jose Maria Olazabal and Seve Ballesteros are the most successful pairing in Ryder Cup history, playing together 15 times and accumulating 12 points.
Olazabal particularly remembers a moment from the 1987 Ryder Cup at Muirfield Village, when Europe won on American soil for the first time. Olazabal and Ballesteros played Tom Kite and Curtis Strange in a Friday afternoon four-ball match.
On the first hole, Strange and Olazabal both hit the green in regulation. Strange missed his long downhill putt for birdie and marked it several feet past the hole. Olazabal then missed his birdie attempt, rolling it less than three feet past. Meanwhile, Ballesteros was still looking at a chip from just off the green.
“Seve said, 'Jose, why don’t you finish, and I can go for it,' Olazabal recalled. “So I bend over to look at the break and all of a sudden, Curtis Strange comes over to me and says, ‘Jose, you know, I don’t think you should be putting.’
“And I said, ‘Well, I mean, Seve is farther away and I have the right to finish.’ And he says, ‘Yes, that’s right, but you might be standing on my through-line.’ And I said, ‘O.K., fine,’ and I marked the ball. As soon as I’m picking my ball up, Seve comes racing over, waving his hands, and he’s saying ‘Jose, Jose, what the hell are you doing? I told you to finish.’
“I said, ‘Hey listen, Seve, Curtis said I might be standing on his through line and that I shouldn’t putt.’”
Olazabal then impersonated an excited Ballesteros, “‘He said that?’
“Then Seve says, ‘O.K., don’t you worry, I’m going to hole it anyway. So he stands over his ball, chips it, it goes right in the hole and he does the fist pump in the air. I’m standing next to Curtis and Seve picks the ball up and walks toward us. When he gets level with us, he looks at Curtis and says, ‘Any problems with the through-line now?’ and just keeps on walking.”
Years later, Strange remembered the same moment: “I almost wanted to applaud."
Paul Goydos was a vice captain for skipper Corey Pavin in 2010 at Celtic Manor in Wales. Goydos was walking with Ryder Cup rookies Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson, who faced European veterans Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald in four-ball.
The rookies were decided underdogs, and in trouble on the first hole, with Overton facing a 50-foot putt. “I was giving play-by-play to Corey,” Goydos recalled, “and Overton is taking about three minutes to hit the putt. Then he hits the putt and makes it to win the hole. I was on the headset and I just said, “Oh my God—he made it!”
Goydos continued: “Rookies are generally a disaster in the Ryder Cup, but they went 2 up on Harrington and Donald in the pouring rain. And I remember Monty (European captain Colin Montgomerie) was on the third tee yelling, ‘What the hell are you doing losing to these two guys?’”
Monty’s ire notwithstanding, Harrington and Donald eventually lost to the rooks, 3 and 2.
Colin Montgomerie had his moments on the radio during the 2010 Ryder Cup but his side was victorious in the end.
Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Of course, boys will be boys, and the language can be a bit racy at times on the headsets. Then again, language itself can be a problem, at least where the Presidents Cup is concerned. Ernie Els captained the 2019 international team in a 16-14 loss at Royal Melbourne.
One of Els' vice captains was South Korean K.J. Choi, which made communication a challenge. “Language is actually the funniest thing of it all,” Els said. “On the Presidents Cup International team, sometimes we have seven different nationalities.
“I remember K.J. would be speaking to me, and then I have another person (interpreter) in the headset telling me what K.J. is saying, or at least trying to tell me—because his English is a little funny, too. I mean, there was a lot going on; it could be pretty comical.”
Speaking of comics, where European headsets are concerned, Lee Westwood is highly regarded for his quick wit and imaginative digs.
In 2018 at Paris, the U.S. team of Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods was losing to Europe’s Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. When the struggling Reed hit an especially poor shot, a voice on the European radio observed, “I think I have more nice words to say about my ex-wife than what Tiger Woods might have to say about Patrick Reed.”
(Mind you, not suggesting the comment belonged to anyone in particular, just passing it along for informational purposes. The fact that Westwood was among Thomas Bjorn’s vice captains that year, and had settled a divorce with his first wife in 2017, should be considered simply circumstantial. Just sayin.’)
In truth, getting former captains or vice captains to expose headset humor—even the most harmless kind—can be a frustrating endeavor. For instance, Irishman Darren Clarke, known for his fun-loving nature and willingness to engage, has a discriminating attitude when it comes to headset chatter. A gentleman doesn’t talk and tell.
“There’s all sorts of stuff,” Clarke acknowledged, laughing, “but none of it is for print. The conversations are priceless, but that’s sacrosanct. I’m not going to divulge anything. You can rest assured there’s some fun moments.”
A vice captain for the U.S. in 2018, David Duval adopts a similar stance: “There may be some (funny stories), I’d have to think about it,” Duval said, “but it’s not anything I would share. The communication, the room stuff, that’s not something I would talk about.”
Still, some stories involving headsets beg to be told. At the 2010 Ryder Cup in weather-ravaged Wales, Tom Lehman was one of Pavin’s vice captains, walking with Jim Furyk and Dustin Johnson. The U.S. team was down by two holes to Harrington and Ross Fisher.
Vice captain Tom Lehman heard something on his headset in 2010 in Wales that turned into a bit of an incident.
Montana Pritchard/Getty Images
As play continued, the evening grew long and the skies grew darker, Lehman was on his headset when he heard the head rules official declare play was suspended.
“And so I’m looking over at the walking rules guy, and he’s not saying a thing,” Lehman recalled. “And I think, ‘That’s really strange, really strange.’ So I walked over to Jim and his partner and I said, ‘Hey, play is suspended. You guys don’t have to finish this hole if you don’t want to.’
“I mean, they’re down, right, and you can’t even see.”
At that point, the rules official with the match, who was a European PGA Tour member, reprimanded Lehman. “You can’t do that,” he said. “That’s loss of hole—you’re giving advice.”
Lehman returned fire: “I’m not giving anybody advice, I’m just doing your job for you. You’re the one who is supposed to tell these guys play is suspended, and you’re not doing it—so I did.”
The rules official took exception, saying players were required to ask if play had been suspended. Lehman was beside himself, replying “No, they don’t have to ask. You need to tell them. You’ve got to do your job.”
Meanwhile, Furyk and Johnson elected to play on and both missed their birdie putts. “And now they’re ticked off,” Lehman added.
As the group concluded its business on the green, Lehman once more confronted the official, and the conversation became more animated. At that point, Lehman explained, Furyk intervened.
“Furyk puts his hand on my shoulder and says, ‘Tom, let me handle this.’ He then turns to the official and says, ‘You know, it’s not so much that you didn’t tell us, it’s your smug-ass attitude.’ And he walks away.
"I mean, it was beautiful.”