Paper Titles & Abstracts

The Ryder Cup is without doubt the biggest team event in the sport of golf. This biennial match pits the best golfers from the USA against a team representing Europe. Few other major sports have a tournament where Europe are represented as a unified team and the Ryder Cup has been identified as one of the only places where you are likely to see the European flag being waved. Whilst few would dispute that this is now an important and eagerly anticipated event on the sporting calendar, little consideration has been given to identify how Europe is actually being (re)presented here. Drawing upon ongoing research into the history and social significance of the Ryder Cup, this paper will assess which Europe and European identity is being discussed within a range of discourse. Despite claims that the event is an important one in uniting Europe in the sports world, the team generally consists of a small geographical core and presents a particular narrow reimaging of Europe.