Few sports are more closely associated with wealth and influence than golf. With all due respect to racing yachts and polo ponies, in the popular imagination, the fairway is a place most often frequented by captains of industry (not to mention presidents); the clubhouse, a bastion of exclusivity. But golf is, by and large, played by regular people on public courses—think state parks or facilities run by local governments. The cost of playing a New York City municipal golf course, for example, is less than $70 in the summer. California’s Pebble Beach Golf Links costs $675 to play, and you usually have to stay on-site.
Nowhere embodies this contradiction more than Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island, which next week will host the Ryder Cup, one of the world’s most recognized global sporting events, pitting a team of 12 of the best American golfers against their European counterparts. The biennial affair, which rotates among venues in the US and Europe, is more glamorous than most of golf’s other major championships. Its opening ceremony includes nattily donned teams coming out in matching suits, and on the course they’ll also be clad in choreographed outfits—Loro Piana for the Europeans, Ralph Lauren for the Americans. Tickets to this year’s Cup cost $750 for a competition day (it’s considerably less for practice days).