Here It Comes …
Dates to remember for the 2016 Ryder Cup — golf's biennial match-play team competition between the U.S. and Europe — to be played Sept. 27-Oct. 2, 2016, at Chaska's Hazeltine National Golf Club:
June 22: Registration to enter a lottery to buy tickets begins and runs through Sept. 30. Visit rydercup.com for more details.
Sept. 28-29: U.S. team captain Davis Love III and European captain Darren Clarke will be in town for a year-to-go kickoff promotion.
June 2016: Construction of corporate, media, merchandise tents, spectator and player bridges as well as grandstands begins.
Aug. 28, 2016: Eight of 12 U.S. team members will be named at the end of The Barclays tournament, based upon a points system contested for two golf seasons. Love will pick three more players Sept. 11 after the BMW Championship and one final player Sept. 25 after the Tour Championship.
Sept. 29, 2016: Afternoon opening ceremonies follow three practice days and kick off three days of competition that next day with four-ball and foursome matches.
Did you know?
• The 2016 Ryder Cup is a week later than usual because golf will be played at the Summer Olympics Games for the first time in Brazil that August. That will push the PGA Championship up into July and the Ryder Cup back into October.
• Minnesota's Tom Lehman — Ryder Cup captain in 2010 — is one of Davis Love III's vice captains. "To be able to go back home and be a part of this Ryder Cup, it will be a thrill beyond all thrills," he said when named in February.
• The Ryder Cup already has been here. Twins players and Target Field fans had their photos taken with it last week at a game against Boston.
• More than 16,500 people applied to pay to volunteer for an event in which fewer than 4,000 will be needed.
• The event is expected to be televised to 500 million households in 160 countries.
• The 2016 Ryder Cup is the last major event currently scheduled at Hazeltine National Golf Club, which has hosted golf's biggest events since 1966.
JERRY ZGODA
