Uneasy Ryder: the Ryder Cup, anti-Americanism and the ‘Yoo-rop’ phenomenon

Abstract

Originally pitting Great Britain against the US in 1927, and for decades a largely one-sided rivalry, the former's request for European help in 1979 changed the complexion of the Ryder Cup as a sporting phenomenon. Unseen in any other major sporting arena, the growing undercurrent of European-ness (the mateship between Scot and Swede, the green-side chants of “Yoo-rop! Yoo-rop!”) is ripe for further investigation. The lines were drawn long ago: internationalist GB v exceptionalist US. Born of a uniquely competitive newspaper market as well as a region more accustomed than any other to supporting national sporting teams, British journalists are renowned/notorious for their lack of bias and, indeed, fondness for ridicule; beyond the Olympics, for which the US media cheerleading is seldom less than one-eyed, their counterparts rarely have an opportunity to report the exploits of a representative side. And when they do, as at the World Baseball Classic, their editors, on the whole, don't send them. Focusing primarily on newspapers, this paper will analyse whether these accepted wisdoms persist while addressing whether anti-Americanism trumps the “Yoo-rop” factor.