This is a good picture of an outstanding
team and I think that the combination is
powerful enough to allow it to transcend
as a piece of sporting memorabilia. Time
will tell, but my early sense is that it could
become one of the most coveted pictures
of my career. There is an old platitude
that the best photographs tend to unfold
when good stuff is in front of the lens and
this single frame endorses that principle.
The true essence of being a team is
played out against the most emphatic
sense of place conceivable.
When I look at the image - as I do every
day - I just can’t help smiling; perhaps in
recognition that the months of logistical
planning were rewarded and also because
the weather at Brooklyn that appointed
morning was generous to us. There was
no Plan B.
Above that, I feel the investment and
thought that went into the dressing of
the players, the captain and vice captains
and caddies paid great dividends. We cut
no corners in the individual stylings and
consequently everyone was invested in
the end result. You win the caddies over
and you win the crowd. I want to thank
Nicole Allowitz and her styling team for
their talent and care.
But most of all, I recognise the extreme
privilege of knowing every single member
in this extraordinary collective of
people. History will remind us that they
unequivocally proved that in the best
teams, the whole is greater than the sum
of the parts. Everyone in this picture had
earned the right to be at Bethpage and I
sensed, from the moment we gathered in
New York 10 days before the tournament,
that there was a cohesive vibe that united
and glued them together. Egos were long
left behind and that is the hallmark of a
captain as strong as Luke Donald.
To win the Ryder Cup away from home is
empirically tough. This European Team
achieved that, but they did so in the
daunting bearpit of New York and that
surely gives the story added weight.
Once upon a time in America ….
Monies from the sales of this print will be
deployed to causes close to the hearts of
everyone that made this picture possible.
It was a proud moment in my journey as
an artist.