Martin Dempster: Windy City cool in the home run but atmosphere will be electric on first tee

On Sunday, they played host to St Louis Cardinals which, with around 300 miles separating the two cities, virtually made it a local derby in American terms.

The Cubs are struggling this season; the Cardinals are going well. On a pleasant afternoon in the Windy City, it went to form as the Cardinals won 6-3 to stay on course for a 12th World Series triumph.

It was my first baseball match and it was thoroughly enjoyable. But, in comparison to the Ryder Cup, the Wrigley Field atmosphere was more akin to watching a monthly medal.

The stadium was full of either families and, in particular, couples, which was refreshing to see. At times, you felt the action on the pitch was almost incidental as they chatted away to their heart’s content.

Most of the kids wore their baseball mitts, hoping they’d get the chance to catch one of the balls that were occasionally thrown into the crowd at the end of a string of what seemed impromptu practice sessions.

I loved the old-fashioned giant scoreboard, the odd tune from an organ and the bizzare sight of permanent stands having been built on the rooftops of houses on two streets that look into the open end of the stadium.

They’re money-makers, of course, and as I sat there I couldn’t stop thinking why someone hasn’t come up with something similar in the properties that flank the right side of the 18th on the Old Course at St Andrews.

Then again, Wrigley Field hosts around 40 games per season whereas an Open Championship comes around every five years in the “Home of Golf”, so the sight of people hanging out of windows instead of sitting comfortably with a refreshment in hand is probably understandable.

The match lasted for more than three hours yet, sitting among the rank-and-file Cubs fans in the “Bleachers”, I never heard the Ryder Cup mentioned a single time, apart from my own company, which consisted of fellow golf writers and EventScotland staff.

In fact, you’d be hard pushed to know that the Ryder Cup is set to take place at Medinah, which sits to the west of America’s third largest city, at the end of the week.

Four years ago, when I arrived at Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby, the taxi driver thought it was something to do with horseracing, hence the reason he kept calling it the “Riders’ Cup”.

On Saturday, when we eventually got to the front of the line at the airport after a two-hour wait, a Homeland Security staff member confessed to a colleague that he thought it was a sailing event, though God only knows where he plucked that one from. Before arriving at the course yesterday, only a couple of billboards at the side of an interstate were the only hint I found that something big is happening on Chicago’s doorstep this weekend. I’m sure there are times when those Cubs fans are a lot more passionate than they were on Sunday and, all credit to them, for sticking by their team towards the bottom end of a disappointing season.

Yet, and I’ll even go as far as including some of the biggest football matches I’ve had the privilege to attend over the years, being at Wrigley Field on Sunday proved that nothing comes close to matching the atmosphere of a Ryder Cup and, in particular, that first tee.

It was electric at The Belfry, Oakland Hills in Detroit, The K Club in Ireland, Valhalla near the aforementioned Louisville and, most recently, at Celtic Manor in Wales.

Despite the apparent lack of interest among the locals, it will be electric, too, here later in the week, though the majority of those in attendance will be flying in from other parts of the States and, of course, all corners of Europe.

In two years’ time, when the match is held at Gleneagles, the Scottish sporting public certainly won’t be apathetic or lacking knowledge. It will be the first time in more than 40 years that the event will have been held in the home of golf and it’s a must-be-at occasion.

For the majority, watching the Medinah action on TV will whet the appetite and it’s heartening that, after two matches without seeing the Saltire being raised at the opening ceremony, Paul Lawrie’s presence will ensure that does happen on this occasion.

After a taste of strikes, catches and home runs, it will be good to get back to drives, birdies and bogeys again later in the week.

DAN Jenkins, the revered American golf scribe, summed it up perfectly. “The FedEx Cup is like the USA winning World War I and World War II, then losing to Greenland,” he tweeted, acerbically, on Sunday night.

It followed Brandt Snedeker’s win in the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where the 31-year-old hit a £7 million jackpot. To put that into perspective, it’s the same that Rory McIlroy has earned this year. Yes, the man who is the world No 1, the current USPGA champion and, moreover, won two of out of the PGA Tour’s end-of-season series didn’t lift the FedEx Cup.

No wonder Snedeker, a smashing bloke and fine golfer to boot, described the situation as “a little bit crazy”.

I’d stretch that to a joke, to be honest, and Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, really needs to have a serious look at what has happened over the past few weeks.

He’ll say, no doubt, that it is imperative no-one should have the crown in the bag heading into the finale and that’s understandable.

However, after winning two wars and then giving a good account of himself in another one, though he did have a poor last round at East Lake, it seems a tad harsh that McIlroy hasn’t added the FedEx Cup to that burgeoning CV.