ryder cup - Inefficient, badly planned and poorly run

Praetorian

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rydercup/

AT THE K CLUB. Inefficient, badly planned and poorly run - the Ryder Cup experience will be turning sour for many people today as the flaws in the public transport system hit home.

Thousands of paying spectators have been left high and not very dry as the weather-hit opening of the K Club caused interminable queues in the public car parks.

Anyone pitching up after 10am might as well have gone home as the line edged forward at the pace of a snail with a heavy head after a night on the dark stuff.

The K Club is sealed off by a two-kilometre wide traffic exclusion zone with two park-and-rides on the perimeter.

But after the overnight high winds, the scheme was suspended until 1000 BST until a safety assessment had been made at the course. Fair enough.

However, once the all-clear was given the spectators huddled inside cars emerged to hop on a bus to reach the venue, only to hit a brick wall.

In the north car park, there were queues to even join the main queue. The reason? A handful of staff had to check every individual’s ID corresponded with the name on their ticket. Now, if I was a baddie, I wonder how I’d get around that?

ryder_fans203.jpg

There was proper airport-style security later but that wasn’t the problem. This was just to get on the bus, and I kid you not, we moved 30 yards in an hour. It is inconceivable that people were loaded onto buses in a dribble and not a torrent.

We eventually wangled our way through, citing the need to get to work. But the poor souls arriving in the car park as we pulled out - organisers had asked local media outlets to suggest delaying their arrival - were in for a shock, not that they would have realized for a long time.

You just hope that the cosseted millionaires they were hoping to see really do appreciate what the paying public will go through to see the tops of their heads.

Fortunately, it seems European captain Ian Woosnam does. He suggested to his players that they should play nine holes, or at least go to the range and sign a few autographs.

The American team has yet to emerge from the comfort of the K Club hotel.

The organisers are promising a news conference at 1300 BST to explain their contingencies for the week in case of bad weather.

I suspect that one will be standing-room only

How embarassing. I'm sure it'll be the last time we'll ever see the Ryder cup on these shores.

plonk

Why oh why did they pick the k club

Keedowah

Why did they pick Ireland? We are a real shower of idiotic b*stards!

We have no public transport - people are ripped off by taxi's as it is and then when it comes to the Ryder cup - they start to strike (Is this because someone has ordered them to pay a registration fee ?!?!?!?!)

Everthing is a rip off - and when the Ryder cup starts - what do we do to encourage the tourists back to see more of the country at a later stage? WE RIP THEM OFF!

Out of interest - does it have to take place at the end of September? Why would you pick Ireland if it had to be then - it is always lashing and miserable at this time of the year.

my 2 cents. - oh sorry - its 5 cents now.
</rant>

Mushy

I was there yesterday so at least I wasnt in the queues today, but wow, sign posting was awful. They have signs out in the right hand lane really close to the turn off so obviously ya have to cut across the lanes to get in, then the actual turnoff is immediately after 2 others which arent clearly identified. Getting out of the car park now will be madness, with the wet and mud causing cars to get stuck. It seems too excessive all the security checks at the bus stop.

keedowah wrote:

Everthing is a rip off - and when the Ryder cup starts - what do we do to encourage the tourists back to see more of the country at a later stage? WE RIP THEM OFF!

€3 for a small, and possibly even smaller than small, 99 ice cream at the venue. €6.50 for sausages and chips. Doesnt go down well for the K Club that way anyway

BaZmO*

Mushy wrote:

€3 for a small, and possibly even smaller than small, 99 ice cream at the venue. €6.50 for sausages and chips. Doesnt go down well for the K Club that way anyway

That's cheap. Have you ever been to a gig in Ireland??

Mushy

BaZmO*, been to loads of gigs in Ireland. I know they all around that price but i know they arent higher than that. Unless at ******.

J.R.HARTLEY

Keedowah wrote:

Why did they pick Ireland? We are a real shower of idiotic b*stards!

We have no public transport - people are ripped off by taxi's as it is and then when it comes to the Ryder cup - they start to strike (Is this because someone has ordered them to pay a registration fee ?!?!?!?!)

Everthing is a rip off - and when the Ryder cup starts - what do we do to encourage the tourists back to see more of the country at a later stage? WE RIP THEM OFF!

Out of interest - does it have to take place at the end of September? Why would you pick Ireland if it had to be then - it is always lashing and miserable at this time of the year.

my 2 cents. - oh sorry - its 5 cents now.
</rant>

as a massive golf and ryder cup fan i have to agree with you, i despair when we try and do anything, we always take a "ah sure it'll be grand" approach to organising, 90% of events are organised and staffed by people with no interest or knowledge meaning they've no f'in clue what they're in for.

ps the cup is always played mid-end september

MisterAnarchy

To be fair I'm sure the organising committee for this are mostly foreigners and they have organised most of the Ryder Cups in the past.
Its the nonsensical ,preposterously over the top security measures that are wreacking havoc.
I went to the 2 American Express Championships when they were played in MountJuliet in late Sept 02 and 04 where the top 50 golfers in the world played.
There were 40,000 people there each day the first year and it ran perfectly.
You could drive right into the estate and parking was free.
It was the best run golf tournament I've been at.
Security was tight but fair.
The K club on the other hand in a disastrously situated course and has serious drainage problems .
Charging 20 euro per day to park a car is outrageous.
I decided I wouldnt go to attend the Ryder Cup here for various logistical and financial reasons.
Its an event that is far more suited to tv than actually attending on the day.

J.R.HARTLEY wrote:

as a massive golf and ryder cup fan i have to agree with you, i despair when we try and do anything, we always take a "ah sure it'll be grand" approach to organising, 90% of events are organised and staffed by people with no interest or knowledge meaning they've no f'in clue what they're in for.

ps the cup is always played mid-end september

BaZmO*

Mushy wrote:

BaZmO*, been to loads of gigs in Ireland. I know they all around that price but i know they arent higher than that. Unless at ******.

I was being facetious with my "that's cheap" comment but having said that, the prices that they're charging for the said items at the RC should hardly come as a surprise to anyone attending especially if you're Irish.

Just on the parking situation. I was away recently at the Germany/Ireland football match and I have to say that the organisation there was phenominal. Evry from price to security to transfort was first class.

The tube/metro was free of charge to and from the stadium and on the way back they used both sides of the track for the trains to head back into the city centre. Now that's forward planning.

yellabelly

The bus shuttle service and security checks were hopelessly inefficient today.
They could learn a lot from festival organisers who have to put up with all kinds of weather.
The north car park is too far from the course. Why they couldn't setup park & rides within reasonable walking distance and take some of the pressure off the buses. I'm sure a lot of people would walk a mile.

yankinlk

Just home, had a fantastic time. Yes, they will never host an event like it agai...just not good enough. But they did pretty good. I been to the k club the last 3 years for the smurfitt open, and it was exactly the same setup - if not a little bit less fancy.

Seriuosly it was not impressive compared to years gone by. I have also been to the JP mcmanus event in adare and i must say that adare is much better.

Those of you heading up for the weekend, good luck, have fun - do not expect much. If the weather holds you will still have a good time - its the last time it will be hosted here.

bucks73

Hay yanklink...what are the prices like for grub and water?

jank

I have a feeling that this thing is going to embaress us all.

KOJAK_1

It's unfair to blame the shuttle bus service for the weather delayed start to the day. For security reasons they were stopped from going to KClub. I was there early and found that the signposting to the car park was fine, buses were queued up to bring people to the event. We were actually straight on to a bus and brough to the KClub, to wait there for over 3 hours to get in.

However I doubt if anybody could have planned for the long delay that had them holding people at the car park. In fairness the article writer says they arrived at 10 - why were the arriving at this time when practice was scheduled for 7.30.

Prices were a little excessive but not really over the top for events such as this. 8.50 for fish/chips or chicken/chips is not way over what you'd pay in some fast food outlets. 2 eur for tea and 3.50 for coffee.

The most dissapointing thing about the day for me was the lack of information inside the ground. Would the Americans come out and if so when. Nobody around the place knew and no announcements were made when they did come out and were probably missed by a lot of people who were at some other end of the course watching the Europeans having some fun playing golf. I caught up with them eventually as all of them played uo the 9th toghether. Little wonder they were booed. Not very fair treatment to the paying spectator that enables them to be pampered for the week.

joe316

does anyone know what the story is if play goes onto monday, what will happen with tickets? will there be a general sale of tickets because i persume that a lot of the americans will be heading home straight away after sunday night.

racso1975

Regarding play going into monday according to the Ryder cup documentation only those with tickets for the sunday will be admitted again on the monday.

With regards to this being a badly organised event I think it is very easy for us all to jump on the band wagon and give out about yesterday. But lets face it i dont think they could have predicted the tail end of a hurricane causing damage and having to close the place down. I founf the transport system to run very smoothly on the tues both going there and coming back.

Regarding the price of food i got fish and chips for 8 euro which is the same price that i pay in my local chippy so was not too bothered by that all.

I you are giving out about the lack of sign posts inside the club lets face it everybody got a map before hand or at the event or could have gone to the map board.

I belive the stewards/marshall's did a great job on both days that i was there and would like to say well done to them.

My only complaint were those idiots driving the buggys at full pace on the footpath. Providing a alternate track or a speed restrictor would have been handy.

I say well done K Club and here is hoping the event does come to Ireland again

FrankGrimes

I got to the North Park & Ride at about 7.20 – just in time to hear them announce that no more buses would be going as spectators weren’t currently being let in. Heard there’d be a decision around 9am. Went off to Celbridge, got some brekkie and came back. Spent another while waiting in the car, then they announced it was good to go. Joined the queue straight away. It took us 1 hour 20 minutes to get on the bus then and we were the ones who had (wisely) disobeyed the advice not to come near the place until the decision was made (which explains why he wasn’t arriving until 10am Kojak).

The delay was nothing to do with the fact they were checking photo ID – it was all down to the fact that they held you back after they’d checked your ID as they were only letting people progress from there to the buses in a slow trickle as they didn’t want crushes at the buses. The fault here was they were only filling 2 buses at a time – if they were filling 5 at a time the queue would have been far, far quicker. On the way back they were filling about 6 buses at a time and it was excellent as the queue moved really quickly, why they didn’t do this at the Park & Ride is beyond me.

When we got upstairs on the bus leaving the Park&Ride for the K Club we were genuinely shocked at the size of the queue behind us – seriously, we broke our bollo*ks laughing cos it was just ridiculous. It snaked hundreds of yards through the car park. There’s no way the person at the back of that queue was getting through in less than 3 hours unless they made fundamental changes to their processing of the queue. I can just imagine what any visitor stuck towards the back of that queue, due to the fact that they obeyed the official advice they were given and stayed away until the decision was made, must make of it all.

I thought everything else was run quite smoothly and this is the only major problem I found, but it would have seriously ruined my day if I’d been even further back in that queue. Why had the tented village run out of all sandwiches bar 6 cheese ploughmans (€4.50 and surprisingly tasty) by 3 o’clock?

Journey back to the Park & Ride was far longer in terms of distance covered than the route taken in the morning, I think it was due to dropping people off at the train station. That was poor form – should have been separate buses if trips to the train station were needed. It was far enough back to the park& ride without making it longer. I came home to Crumlin via Celbridge, Newcastle, Saggart, Tallaght and did it in 45 minutes which was not bad at all – anyone turning left out of the park&ride looked like they were heading into an unbelievable mess.

In one way it was poor form to take the yanks p1ss like they did (particularly on the 7th where they had a 3iron challenge shot from across the water about 140 yards out), on the other hand it was cool to see them together as a big bunch of 12 lads having a laugh and slaggin each other when they messed up.

On the 6th only 4 of their 12 balls hit the green, bizarrely every last one of them were short (from ~160yards). On the 8th they were marginally better, but would say there was a max of 3 birdies out of the 12 balls on that hole. They signed some autographs for kids on the 8th and Corey Pavin was particularly nice with the crowd.

Europeans were in great form throughout – playing well and enjoying it, Clarke in particular was in great form.

Overall I had a great day in spite of the weather but the queue mayhem left me with an uneasy feeling that the country is going to be embarrassed by poor organisation. I really hope the weather improves cos I genuinely think it could have a negative impact on tourism if continuous rain is broadcast around the world.

Come on Team Europe though, I reckon we’ve a very decent chance, particularly after seeing just how nervous the 4 American rookies were.

T BONE steak

Today is my first day of four. My experience was not as bad as i had expected after what i had read on this website on tuesday and wednesday. I chose the South P&R. They had relocated from Johnstown to Punchestown which was further away by half an hour. There was a little bit of traffic when i arrived at Naas around quarter past 9am. Half an hour to get to Punchestown car park from Naas. No queue on my way from the car park to the bus. Half an hour bus ride to K Club. Slight delayed to get through security. But overall it was swifter than i anticipated. Certainly, this is nothing as compared to going through Dublin airport. Arrived at K club at half 10am. Walked to 12 tee and 11 green and saw Tiger, phil and co. Followed them for 5 holes before making my way to follow the European team. Saw Darren, Sergio, Ola and Lee at Hole 6 going towards the green. And i waited at green 6 to see the following two groups. Have to agree that the atmosphere was cheerful in the European camp. I think Darren won some money today. The atmosphere in American camp was very serious and dull. Come on Europe, we can do it.

bucks73

Just back myself and also used Punchestown park and ride. Very easily done and looking forward to tomorrow.

FrankGrimes

It seems they've sorted out the problems in the north park&ride aswell - glad to hear it!

The Insider

Attended yesterday and was extremely impressed with how it was all organised. Got the train from Connolly plenty of friendly Ianroad Eireann staff helping people who did not know where to go, buses were awaiting immediately when we got off the train, smoothly on and the bus journey only took about 20/25 minutes. All in all less then an hour from Connolly station. Very well organised and efficient.

Once inside the K club stewards everywhere who were very friendly and knew where to direct you, conditions were fine sun was out shining. Plenty of stands for food, places to sit down, get a beer etc. Plenty of Toilet facilities and stands to watch the different holes, all the walk ways were layed out well easy to get around the course. thought the K Club on a whole looked fantastic.

Opening ceremony went very well huge crowds in good form already being talked about as a new standard for opening ceremony's in regards to the Ryder Cup. On the way home again it was very easy walked out to the North Bus Terminus had to queue for about 10 mins to get a bus even though the queue was huge it was moving very fast. Got of the Bus at the train station and only had to wait about 10 minutes for a train. Fantastic day out and everything went very smoothly. Was speaking to a number of Americans who did the same journey as me and they had exactly the same impression as me.

From reading on the coverage already it looks like today is going fantastically well with the atmosphere being electric. Ireland is well capable of organising and handling an event like this, the weather played a huge factor in the problems that were had on Wednesday and I am very confident of this being one of the best tournaments being held in Ryder Cup history and from reading quotes from certain websites today it seems a lot of people are commenting on well it is going.

Dcully

Dont know what half you guys are moaning about,i was there yesterday and it was flawless.
Rang 3 friends who are there today and they too say it is flawless.
Anything to F o o king moan about tbh.

yom 1

Yeah was there yesterday and was highly impressed with how smoothly everything ran. Park and rides worked very well(although €20 is way too much). As was said stewards inside K Club were all very helpful and friendly. Had a good day. European players all stoppin to sign autographs and interact with the crowd. Americans completely ignored everyone and got very little applause if any from the crowd.

streaker

Just wondering off anybody who was there today, is it true about phones and cameras not being allowed in? i have to meet someone when i get in there and was just going to ring them when i arrived, thanks ain advance

BaZmO*

streaker wrote:

Just wondering off anybody who was there today, is it true about phones and cameras not being allowed in? i have to meet someone when i get in there and was just going to ring them when i arrived, thanks ain advance

Somebody posted a thread on this already. Just have a look on the main page of the golf forum.

streaker

sorry i am just after seeing it

yankinlk

Someone asked about food prices. 20 euro buys a round for four people...I think it was around a fiver for a pint. I ate in the Champagne tent (open to public) so not great to judge by me. It was 42 euro for a plate of lobster and that was the most expensive thing on the menu (bar the 150 euro bottle of Moet). You could get a glass of wine for 6 euro. and an appetitzer of say smoked mackrel for 6 euro. It was class and worth it.

The weather really contributed to the problems - and at the end of the day it was only a practice day...we paid a lot less to attend practice days and shouldnt expect to see players on every hole in the same format as the competition days.

the_syco

They expected nice weather? In Ireland? :eek:

KdjaCL

the_syco wrote:

They expected nice weather? In Ireland? :eek:

Its lovely now, oh its raining, lovely , raining , lovely rainng ,lovely , raining and on and on and on



kdjac

Pigman II

It's Ireland baby! We're the country that had our planned Easter Sunday rising ... on a Monday.

And didn't we try to get the Football European Championships by showing UEFA a crumbling wreck of a stadium, a 3/4ths finished GAA stadium and A FIELD .... all of which were located in the one city.

It's a miracle they even got the Ryder Cup at all no matter how bad it is.

1huge1

well i think irelands golf facilites are much better than our other sports
though with weather like this we wont be seeing it again any time soon
shame really because other than the last week or so the weather was really good
such bad luck

sofireland

I don't think when they awarded it to us they could have foreseen the effects of the tailend of a hurricane affecting weather conditions.

IMO a lot of people are moaning for the sake of it, from what i've heard and read overall it seems to be well organised... Enjoy the occasion, instead of picking up faults,,,

yankinlk

The reason that Ireland won't host it again possiblly for our lifetime is that the organisers intend to only play the ryder cup at courses they buy in future - like 2018 on or something.

I personally dont like the idea - but I can see where they are coming from. They will build Stadium Golf Courses that can handle waAAAAyyy more people.

Other than that I think that Ireland have done a great job - watching it on telly today it could have been anywhere...

Devrozex

Well my own personal experience was highly positive. Didn't have to Q at all for the Park and Ride, either on the way out or back. Only Qing was for the security checks on the way in. In fact, I was positively amazed at how well the event seemed to be organised, so am a little surprised to hear these complaints.:o

FrankGrimes

Think this one is pretty straightforward - they made an absolute mess of things in the North Park & Ride on Wednesday (by all accounts the South Park &Ride went smoother due to less volume). It was a pretty basic mistake they made with the queue setup there, but everything else was very well organised that day.

It seems they learned from their mistakes and had everything running smoothly from Thursday through the rest of the weekend so fair play to them for getting it back on track. If you were there on Wednesday you'd understand the complaints at that time were very valid, but I was delighted to hear they had everything patched up before it started for real.

So on the whole it was very well run with only a few blips along the way, and thank god the weather was stunning yesterday for the most publicised parts of the whole weekend. I reckon Bord Failte 'got' to Tom Lehman - his 'wow this could be San Diego right now' comments were surely aimed at helping our tourism industry, as was Bertie's 'from the sunny, sunny K Club'. But fair play it might well dupe a few people into thinking we're a sun haven...though we can expect some false advertising claims when they get here, but we couldn't have asked for better weather for the finale.

slumped

It was the best organised Ryder Cup we have ever hosted, bar none.

bucks73

I was there from Thursday to Sunday and didnt have one problem or delay. Thought it was run brilliantly and very efficiently.

L5

Was there on Thursday and Sunday. Thought it was very well organised, didnt have a single problem.

rovingrover

I thought it was reasonably well organsied.

Apparently the public transport ran well. North Park and Ride was a mudbath yet cars were roped off from driving out on the bit of roadway that was there. Obvious queues to get back on N4 but gardai were there and doing their best. They did learn from their mistakes earlier in the week and left the shuttle buses go on their own instead of convoys of ten. Even Dublin bus usually only have 3 buses together at any one time.

Marshalls were excellent although many seemed to have been brought in from England. In general on the course it was well organised. Not as big a ripoff on the food as reported. A bit higher than Lansdowne Road prices. The merchandise was a big disappointment. Totally soldout of most things by sunday morning and apparently by Tuesday were out of raingear in most sizes and umbrellas. The prices seemed OK too.

FM/AM radio was good value for a tenner. Didn't realise for ages that the Ryder Cup radio were a few minutes behind RTE on most things.

While we couldn't have predicted the tailend of a hurricane I don't think a few days of rain in late September should have been a big shock.

I think they sold too many tickets and left too many people on the course.

prospect

What a resounding success.

Perfectly run and organised, even in the face of very poor weather conditions.

Truely two fingers to all the pessimist begrudgers that did nothing but whinge about something they clearly knew nothing about.

I met with 6 americans who have been too the last 4 ryder cups and several majors in recent years. Their overall opinion was that the event should be hosted by Ireland every time.

slumped

prospect wrote:

......Their overall opinion was that the event should be hosted by Ireland every time.

Here here! or is that Hear Hear?

sofireland

It was a fantastic event...
It really was...
I think its put Ireland well and truly on the map to be future venue for Ryder Cups.

Dcully

Makes a real laugh at the origional poster and muppets in this thread saying it was badly run.

RuggieBear

Efioanaes wrote:

Makes a real laugh at the origional poster and muppets in this thread saying it was badly run.

how so? The organisation at the car park on the day that the jornalist/blogger was there was terrible. To their credit they got over the problems and organised a great event....

Except the opening and closing cermonies, where all i can say is WTF?:p

J.R.HARTLEY

was reading in todays paper that the streaker was actually an englishman the irish fans reputation remains unsmeared

Marshy

Im amazed to hear people saying that it will never return here or at least not in our life time. I'd be willing to bet that the ryder will be back here within 20-25 years. Being the cash cow that it is too I'd say everyone will be welcoming it with open arms.

prospect

From Europeantour.com

Building on the success of staging the most atmospheric Ryder Cup match ever played, Ireland has picked up another major golf event that will hone the team match play skills of Europe’s top golfers even more over the next three years. The five-star Heritage Golf & Spa Resort, in Killenard, Co. Laois – just 34 miles from The K Club in Co. Kildare – has been chosen as the host venue for the prestigious Seve Trophy in both 2007 and 2009.


Badly run and inefficient?

J.R.HARTLEY

i'm glad The Heritage is being recongised it's a cracking course. i'm still surprised we carried off the ryder cup so well, after the early days of practice things looked bad, and with the waya lot of the people "marshalled" the european open in the same club (different course) i was expecting a disaster. fair play to whomever organised, bloody good job.

sofireland

Nothing to do with the fact that Seve helped design the Heritage!

No i agree, its recognition for the tremendous effort that went into the ryder cup to make it such a success.

prospect

sofireland wrote:

Nothing to do with the fact that Seve helped design the Heritage!

No i agree, its recognition for the tremendous effort that went into the ryder cup to make it such a success.

To be fair, I believe Seve has designed several courses, mostly in Spain.
Although, it certainly would have beeen an influencing factor, that and the fact he owns a house/appartment on the course.

I would say the Ryder Cup success sealed the deal.

J.R.HARTLEY

sofireland wrote:

Nothing to do with the fact that Seve helped design the Heritage!

No i agree, its recognition for the tremendous effort that went into the ryder cup to make it such a success.

very true forgot all about that,despite his bronze statue out the front.