51-Time Emmy Award-Winning Sports Producer Ross Greenburg Captures Drama of the 1991 Matches When Competition Between USA and Europe Went From Courteous to Contentious
Archival Footage from Kiawah Island and Interviews with Captains and Players Re-Create Drama of Golf’s Biggest Stage
“When NBC shined the Klieg lights of network television into the whites of their eyes and into the souls of the players, that’s when the Ryder Cup was born.” – PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka
“That was the day that really changed the Ryder Cup. It became a television spectacle that day.” – Mark Rolfing, NBC/Golf Channel commentator who also served as an on-course reporter for NBC during the 1991 Ryder Cup
“After Kiawah Island in 1991, people who wouldn’t know whether a golf ball was stuffed or pumped were now wanting to know what’s going on with the Ryder Cup.” – Robin McMillan, author of “Us Against Them: An Oral History of the Ryder Cup”
“It has grown by leaps and bounds since ’91. It did put the Ryder Cup back on the map.” – Team USA Team member Hale Irwin on the impact of the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah
ORLANDO, Fla. (Sept. 18, 2012) – The epic competition between the U.S.A. and Europe on Kiawah Island, S.C., in 1991 that forever changed golf’s Ryder Cup from a friendly exhibition to a high-stakes rivalry, is captured in War by the Shore, a 60-minute film by 51-time Emmy Award-winning producer and former president of HBO Sports Ross Greenburg, premiering Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
War by the Shore goes inside the ropes on those three historic days in September, with in-depth and insightful interviews with many of the competing players and the captains who led their teams during one of the most memorable Ryder Cups ever played. Contested by the best golfers on either side of the Atlantic on Kiawah’s picturesque and brutal Ocean Course layout, the 1991 Ryder Cup was a spectacle for tournament patrons and television viewers, alike. All were witnesses to a tense, back and forth – not all together civil – affair, filled with miraculous shots and epic collapses.
“We saw weakness in players exposed that you never would have dreamed existed in those players.” – Mark Rolfing
“Pretty simple – one word: brutal. Never seen a golf course like it.” Nick Faldo, Golf Channel analyst, 1991 European team member and 2008 team captain describing the Ocean Course.
The film begins with a historical perspective of the Ryder Cup, revealing an evolution that began with a friendly, biennial competition between the U.S.A. and Great Britain – dominated for years by the Americans – that has turned into an all-out, heavyweight battle between two continents. It provides day-by-day accounts of the 1991 Ryder Cup through archival footage and present-day interviews with the bigger-than-life personalities from both teams that offer insight to how the matches have seemingly gone from civil to outwardly contentious:
| USA | Europe |
| Dave Stockton, Captain | David Feherty |
| Paul Azinger | Colin Montgomerie |
| Corey Pavin | Jose Maria Olazabal |
| Mark O’Meara | Nick Faldo |
| Mark Calcavecchia | Bernhard Langer |
| Lanny Wadkins | |
| Steve Pate | |
| Chip Beck |
Other interviews featured in War by the Shore include golfing legends Jack Nicklaus (USA) and Tony Jacklin (Europe), the two captains from the 1987 Ryder Cup at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, which is credited as the place where much of the bad blood between the two teams began. Also interviewed are authors, golf historians and members of the media who share intimate knowledge about the 1991 Ryder Cup, including Curt Sampson, best-selling author of the recently published book, “The War by the Shore”; Robin McMillan, author of “Us Against Them: An Oral History of the Ryder Cup”; Martin Davis, golf historian; Johnny Miller, Roger Maltbie and Mark Rolfing, NBC golf commentators; Joe Steranka, chief executive offer of the PGA of America; and Tommy Braswell, golf writer for The Post & Courier newspaper in Charleston, S.C.
The film also remembers the heart and soul of the European team, the late Seve Ballesteros, the quintessential Ryder Cup competitor who didn’t take losing lightly and who changed the tenor of the competition, and it captures in fine detail the dramatic finish that won the Ryder Cup back for the U.S.A. for the first time since 1983.
War by the Shore is one of several programming highlights during Ryder Cup Week on Golf Channel, the fastest-growing network on television among those serving more than 80 million homes. David Feherty hosts the second Feherty Live! of 2012 in front of a live Chicago audience, Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. ET; and Live From the Ryder Cup and Morning Drive will feature a combination of more than 40 live hours of news, highlights, interviews and analysis surrounding the 39th Ryder Cup matches from Medinah Country Club.
-NBC Sports Group-
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