Not to date sportswriter Hank Gola, but I grew up waiting for my dad to come home with a copy of the New York Daily News, which he’d usually pick up on the train ride home after being abandoned there by a fellow traveler that got off before him. Gola, who spent much of his four-decade-long journalism career at the self-professed “hometown paper” for New Yorkers, covered football — his weekly picks were a must-read — as well as golf, which I always flipped to first.
When I got old enough to work alongside him in the same media centers, I marveled at how he pumped out his copy seemingly effortlessly and would already be holding court at the bar while I was still slaving over how I was going to string together my pearls. He also found time to play way more golf than me #jealous and keeps count of how many courses he’s played.
Rumor has it he had to miss a tee time or two to write Ryder Cup Rivals: The Fiercest Battles for Golf’s Holy Grail, his latest book (Tetra Press, $32), and it served as a reminder that he hasn’t lost his fastball.
Good thing I was reading a digital copy on my iPad otherwise I would have burned through a half-dozen highlighters there are so many memorable facts, nuggets and anecdotes worth underlining. Given Gola’s small but critical role in Ryder Cup history — he asked the question of Phil Mickelson at the press conference following the U.S. loss in 2014 that sparked a memorable response that led to the infamous Task Force — he’s the perfect guy to take readers on a tour of the most consequential clashes of 13 Ryder Cups and detail how controversies and rivalries have shaped the matches. On the verge of the 45th Ryder Cup, which begins Sept. 26 at Bethpage Black in Farmington, New York, Gola took time to answer six burning questions I had about his book.
GWK: What made you want to write this book?
HG: I wasn’t thinking about authoring another book until my publisher came to me about writing something golf related. I thought that, while there were several excellent Ryder Cup histories, none went as in-depth as I wanted my research to take me. I was hoping to demonstrate how some things never changed even as the Ryder Cup evolved and I wanted to uncover buried treasure that would otherwise not come to public attention – stories behind and beyond the competition.
GWK: What is a nugget that you stumbled upon in your digging that you are extremely proud of bringing to light?
HG: I suppose that The Concession wasn’t immediately celebrated as the all-time magnanimous gesture it eventually became. No contemporary newspaper account made much of it. The emphasis was on Jack Nicklaus’ nerve in dropping the five-foot par putt before picking up Tony Jacklin’s coin. Nicklaus’ generosity enraged many of his teammates and particularly (U.S.) captain Sam Snead, who wouldn’t have given that length putt to his mother. Snead sat Nicklaus, who was making his first Ryder Cup appearance after winning seven majors and the career grand slam, in the opening session of the week. Some thought that Jack gave Jacklin the putt to spite his captain.
GWK: Who are your favorite Ryder Cup characters from the U.S. and Europe (GB&I pre-1979) that you knew little or nothing about?
HG: I didn’t know that Robert Hudson, a grocery store entrepreneur from Portland, Oregon, may have saved the future of the Ryder Cup by funding the entire trip of the British team in 1947. The U.K. economy was on its knees coming out of World War II and if not for Hudson’s intervention, the Ryder Cup may have become a historical footnote. Dai Rees had a profound effect on the Ryder Cup. The “Wee Welshman” played in nine and captained five. He was the first Ryder Cup captain to set up the course to favor his side and that led to the GB&I upset at Lindrick in 1957. He set aside a case of champagne not to be opened until the Americans fell again. The bubbly stayed closed until 1985, two years after Rees’ death.
GWK: What is the most underrated Ryder Cup of the last 40 years?
HG: The first victory after the inclusion of Continental Europe came in 1985, followed by Europe’s first win on foreign soil against captain Jack Nicklaus at Nicklaus’ course, Muirfield Village. But the groundwork was laid in 1983 at Palm Beach Gardens. The Cup was won on a brilliant wedge shot by American stalwart Lanny Wadkins, with captain Nicklaus kissing the ball mark Wadkins created afterwards. Seve Ballesteros, however, came into his own as the undisputed European leader. The Europeans were devastated but Seve told his teammates that it was a great victory for it showed that the U.S. could be beaten.
GWK: Who do you consider to be the best and worst American captain?
HG: Paul Azinger put more thought into his 2008 captaincy than several of the previous American captains combined. He reminded me of Bill Belichick in looking for every edge, from his PODS system to finding a pit bull (Anthony Kim) to sic on European sparkplug Sergio Garcia to stoking up the Kentucky crowds as if it was an SEC football game. It was no surprise, of course, given the passion he brought to the Ryder Cup as a player. Hal Sutton’s captaincy at Oakland Hills in 2004 was a disaster. His daring pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson (and boastful prognostications) set up the entire U.S. team to fail by giving the Euros a rallying cry that carried the momentum of the week.
GWK: Do you think Team USA would have created a Task Force had you not asked the question to Phil Mickelson that sparked his critical comments of Tom Watson in the losing team press conference following the 2014 beat down in Scotland?
HG: There would probably have been some sort of reckoning, but it surely moved things along and made it inevitable by airing the team’s dirty laundry in public. Phil seldom says anything without a purpose, even when it may backfire, and my question teed it up for him. Watson ended up being the fall guy but his motives went beyond the aloof captain to exactly for whom the Ryder Cup existed – the players or the PGA of America? He certainly got their attention.
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