But the most significant miscue Bradley made in his turn as Ryder Cup captain came before the teams ever stepped foot on the grounds in Long Island, New York. Neutering the difficulty of a notoriously tough course when your players are going to be the more comfortable and have the fan support was an own goal.

Bethpage Black stretches to 7,352 yards for this Ryder Cup with a par of 70. That’s 6,724 meters if you prefer metric — one of the longest courses in Ryder Cup history. Front nine runs 3,593 yards, back nine pushes 3,759. Both sides are par-35.

The municipal courses at Bethpage State Park were conceived as "The People's Country Club." Now, as then, the prices reflect that.

The legendary Long Island course doesn’t require a membership or an expense account. That means any golfer can “watch the gods hit the very shots” they’ve tried themselves.

The fans that line the holes at Bethpage Black have a reputation in the golf world – they’re loud, boisterous, occasionally rude and oftentimes vulgar. For most of Friday and Saturday, they were subdued.

For some people at the Ryder Cup the tournament was a snooze. Literally. A shocking number of spectators have been seen turning the legendary Bethpage Black course in Long Island into their their personal king-sized bed, as they were spotted passed out from exhaustion or drinking in the grass and trees of the tract during this week’s Ryder Cup.