I’m not saying homefield advantage wasn’t an enormous factor in the European’s Ryder Cup win in Italy.  A week later and I still can’t get Ole’, Ole’, Ole’, Ole’, Ooooole’, Ooooole’ out of my head!  But the European team had something special, a huge intangible, that I assert was the key to their 2023 Ryder Cup victory:

Love.

I know the word “love” isn’t used much in sports, but the love these guys had for each other, and for their captain, Luke Donald, was palpable.  You could see it in the way they embraced – they didn’t embrace like teammates, they hugged like brothers.  They didn’t act like they were bonded by sports, they acted like they were bonded by bloodlines.  They were family.

Come on Patty, how sappy can you be?  This is golf, not a romance novel, or even a bromance novel.  Tru dat.  But here’s my thought – if you’re playing Singles, it doesn’t matter how you feel about your teammates.  If you’re playing Fourball (two vs. two), maybe it matters a little.  But in Foursomes, your relationship with your partner really matters.

Non-golfers, Foursomes (also called Alternate Shot) is a format in golf where two partners play only one ball.  So, Partner A hits the tee shot, then Partner B hits the second shot, then it’s back to Partner A who hits the third shot, and so on, until the hole is finished.  It’s the only format in golf where a player’s bad shot DIRECTLY AND ADVERSLEY AFFECTS his or her partner.

And that doesn’t always go so well.  I once watched a team have a meltdown because Player A hit a great shot that wound up just 3 feet from the hole.  Player B missed the putt.  “How could you miss that putt?” Player A yelled out.  I’ll leave Player B’s response out of this, but suffice it to say, they didn’t win.

But the Europeans did!  The ending Ryder Cup score was Europe 16 ½, United States 11 ½.  How did the Europeans do in Foursomes?  7 to 1.  That’s almost a 90% win rate!

Love.

And here’s the sports-worthy thing: the love the European teammates had for one another didn’t just happen.  Luke Donald aggressively nurtured it and then he exploited it!  First, he had a team meeting that Rory McIlroy called a “Fireside Chat” where members shared things about themselves the others didn’t know.  I’ve done similar exercises with colleagues – it’s an extraordinary process because everyone really does come out feeling closer.

Then Donald created videos for every player with words of inspiration and encouragement from the players’ loved ones.  Of course, the players love their families and their families love them – that’s not newsworthy.  But bringing that love into the clubhouse and onto the golf course — that was a brilliant move by Luke Donald.  One commentator said the videos gave the European team members confidence.  I say it gave them love.

Want to see what “teammate love” looks like?  Click on this video of Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood.  I’ll warn you, Lowry is so full of love, he drops the F bomb.

I’ll end with a quote from the oldest European team member Justin Rose: “Obviously, something clicked for us. There was just a feeling we had as a group that was very strong, a certain unspoken energy.  We bonded incredibly well.”

Uh huh.  I think that’s called love.