Rory McIlroy Says 'Ryder Cup Without Fans Is Not a Ryder Cup'

Rory McIlroy is not interested in seeing a Ryder Cup without fans.

The Northern Ireland star golfer said on Instagram Live that he'd rather see the event—currently scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin—postponed until 2021 instead (h/t Reuters): 

"I get the financial implications for everyone involved. There's a lot that goes into putting on the Ryder Cup that people don't appreciate, but having a Ryder Cup without fans is not a Ryder Cup. It wouldn't be a great spectacle. There'd be no atmosphere. So if it came to whether they had to choose between not playing the event or playing it without fans, I would say just delay it a year and play it in 2021.

"Obviously it would be better for the Europeans to play without fans because we wouldn't have to deal with some of the stuff you have to put up with, but at the same time it's not a Ryder Cup. If they do delay it until 2021, the next Ryder Cup is in Italy, and we know how badly Italy was affected by coronavirus, so it gives them an extra year to prepare for the event in 2023."

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said during an appearance on WFAN's Talking Golf with Ann Liguori that the PGA was still mulling its options when it came to the Ryder Cup (h/t Josh Berhow of Golf.com):

"[Ryder Cups] are pretty unique, and the fans are the Ryder Cup to a certain degree. It is hard to image one without fans. We have begun to talk about whether you can create some virtual fan experience, and we are going to try and be as creative as we can. 

"To be determined, frankly, whether you'd hold it without fans or not. For the Ryder Cup it's particularly important, so we will be very careful about that. It's a very unique thing, and I think if we can pull it off this year it will be an amazing exclamation point to the year."

Should the Ryder Cup, contested every two years between Europe and the United States, be postponed until 2021, it would join a number of other sports and events affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 British Open has already been canceled, while the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship were all postponed. 

Sports around the globe have also altered their schedules, with major leagues like the NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, MLS, ATP, WTA, Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga currently on hiatus. 

The NCAA also canceled all winter and spring sports, meaning basketball fans went without the men's and women's tournaments. 

While fans are a big part of golf, the logistics of holding other major events without them is a bit easier to pull off than other sports. Golf would lend itself naturally to distancing, for instance, given the large courses and the fact that number of golfers and caddies per hole is small. 

It's the experience that fans provide to an event like the Ryder Cup that would be lost, however, leaving the PGA and event organizers with an interesting decision to make.