Word that Luke Donald had provided members of the European Ryder Cup team with a VR headset to help simulate the noise at Bethpage Black drew plenty of headlines, but it seemed as though some of the players got more of a kick out of it as a novelty than anything else.
Rasmus Højgaard called it “a fun little gimmick from the team” on Wednesday when he was asked bout the VR headset, while also saying that he had tried them on.
“I thought it was a fun idea. Yeah, it gave us a picture of how the whole first tee looked like, which I thought was quite fun,” he said.
Team Europe elder statesman Justin Rose revealed that he didn’t use the virtual reality headset “more than five minutes,” but appreciated the thought behind the idea of providing players with it.
Rory McIlroy had revealed during the BMW Championship that Donald had provided the item to the European players after a team gathering.
“I think it was really, really interesting to put them on and get the feeling of what it was going to look like, obviously, with the 18th and the wraparound and the first and the stands and how a full Bethpage could look and feel,” Rose said.
However, the VR headsets were also useful for another reason inside the Rose household.
“I had more fun showing my family. Some people who aren’t going to be here, my son, my daughter, my mom,” he said. “Like this is what the first tee is going to feel like.’ That was really cool from that point of view.”
The idea behind it had been to help the players prepare for what are expected to be raucous crowds at Bethpage State Park for the Team USA vs. Team Europe showdown.
Tuesday and Wednesday marked the first two days fans were allowed on the grounds of the iconic Bethpage Black course and Ludvig Åberg said that he had heard some chirping from fans during the practice rounds.
Rasmus Højgaard had said the crowds had been “great” and that Team Europe “got good support.”
“So far, it’s been great,” he added. “We know that there’s going to be some situations out there, but I think we’re all very much prepared for it. But it was definitely a very good start.”
American golfer Collin Morikawa described the crowds as “tame” and called on the US fans to bring “chaos” to the Ryder Cup come Friday.