Froth and hysteria add to myth of the dreaded opening shot at Ryder Cup | Jonathan Liew

The circus of the 1st tee on the first morning offers great theatre but modern players are capable of taking it all in their stride

Just a game of golf. One shot, just like any other. The same tee, the same swing, the caddie you know and the club you chose and the ball you like. A pale blue sunrise and a vast green pasture. Is this really the hardest shot in golf, or does it just feel that way when everybody is watching?

A little before half past seven on a crisp Roman morning, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton enter the 1st hole to a bestial roar. But this is merely the climactic act of a tableau set in motion some time earlier. Long before the opening shots, long before the Icelandic hand claps, long before the gates opened and thousands of fans came bounding across the grass like wildebeest in a David Attenborough documentary. The 1st tee is one of the Ryder Cup’s founding mythologies, and like all mythologies it seems to have gathered new layers and details with every retelling.

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