The time the Ryder Cup almost died

In the early 1980s, there came a point where the Ryder Cup governing bodies had seemingly tried everything, but nothing worked. The matches weren't competitive, the U.S. players were losing interest, and the chief sponsor of the European team dropped out, leaving them with no money to continue. This, even more than the pause for the Second World War, saw the Ryder Cup on the thinnest possible ice, seemingly fated to die a sad death. This week on Local Knowledge, we're telling the story of the unlikely resurrection—how a collection of players, captains, and executives managed to keep it alive against the odds. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to The time the Ryder Cup almost died online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The time the Ryder Cup almost died is an episode from Local Knowledge by Golf Digest.

This episode is 00:30:55 long.

This episode was published on Sep 16, 2025.

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