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One thing is certain; there has never been a course in Ryder Cup history that stretches as far as 7,496 yards, which will be the case when the 37th edition of the biennial match unfolds at Valhalla Golf Club from September 19-21, 2008. What can also be stated without fear of contradiction is that there has not been a club, since The Ryder Cup began in 1927, which has been named after a hall in Norse mythology where the souls of Viking heroes feasted and celebrated with the Gods.

The Vikings can be traced back as far as the eighth century, but Valhalla cannot claim such history. Nevertheless it has, since its own birth in 1986, contributed to the history of the game of golf. In 1996 Mark Brooks won the US PGA Championship at Valhalla after a play-off, and in the Millennium year it was the turn of Tiger Woods to win the US PGA Championship which proved to be the third leg of his unique achievement of holding all of the four Major Championships at the same time. For the record, he won the US Open Championship at Pebble Beach and the Open Championship at St Andrews in 2000 prior to the US PGA Championship, then the Masters Tournament at Augusta National in 2001. It meant that Valhalla will always have a place in golf’s record books alongside those three other legendary golfing venues.

Then again, that is fair enough since Valhalla just happened to be designed by the man whose record Woods seeks to beat. Jack Nicklaus, winner of 18 Major Championships, sculpted the course at Valhalla and, more recently, he returned in partnership with the PGA of America to ensure an even more spectator-friendly venue for The 2008 Ryder Cup, not to mention a challenging course for those who eventually fill the European and United States Teams.

That modification programme began in the summer of 2006 and included not only extensive changes, especially at the 14th, 15th and 16th, to improve spectator viewing but also significant alterations to the course. Not only has the grass been replaced on all 18 greens, but Nicklaus has also overseen the reconstruction of the sixth, eighth, 11th and 16th greens in addition to new bunkers being added on the first, second, fifth, 12th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes.

Joe Steranka, Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of America, said: “Valhalla has already achieved much attention in its short history, and now it is ready to be showcased to the world at The 2008 Ryder Cup.”

Valhalla Golf Club started as the dream of Louisville businessman and golf enthusiast Dwight Gahm (pronounced game). Just as Samuel Ryder’s dream of The Ryder Cup becoming an international contest turned into reality, so Gahm’s vision of Valhalla becoming a venue to host such events has been realised.

It was in 1981 that Gahm commissioned Nicklaus to design the course on 486 acres of rolling Kentucky countryside some 20 minutes east of Louisville on Shelbyville Road in eastern Jefferson County. The thick woodlands and the lush, bluegrass-covered river bottom whetted the designer’s taste buds; as did the thought of tee boxes tucked onto ledges above riverbanks containing the lazy waters of Floyd’s Fork. Nicklaus described the site as “a golf designer’s dream because there is a variety of terrain, vegetation and water to work with. Everything necessary for an excellent golf course is here; room for wide, tree-lined fairways and spectacular golf holes.”

Gahm is now aged 88. He has been called a dreamer; a visionary. In Kentucky they know him as ‘Mr Golf’. Why not? What he put down at Valhalla, with a little bit of help from Mr Nicklaus, was a golf course not a country club. His ambition was for a course to hold Major Championship golf; not to be an excuse for a housing development. He determined to transform an abandoned Kentucky horse farm into a golf course, simply a course, but a great course, as against a money making project. This was to be Gahm’s legacy which is why Nicklausreceived the call. All Gahm requested was that the course that Jack built was worthy of hosting Major Championships and, perhaps, The Ryder Cup, and that a noon start time was reserved for him everyday so that if the opportunity arose, he could play with his sons Gordy, Phil and Walt.

In 1993, some seven years after Valhalla Golf Club opened its doors, the PGA of America agreed to purchase 25 per cent of the Club. Then after the successful conclusion of the 1996 US PGA Championship, the PGA of America assumed 50 per cent ownership and, following the victory by Woods in 2000, they purchased the remaining 50 per cent. That ensured Gahm’s legacy to the game since, just as according to legend the warriors of Odin marched through the doors of Valhalla shoulder to shoulder armed with swords and spears to do battle, so will two forces in golf now stand shoulder to shoulder as Europe seeks to win The Ryder Cup for a fourth successive time against the United States. This time, of course, it will be golf clubs that will do the talking or, more specifically, those belonging to the 24 world class golfers who will line up under the leadership of Captains Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo.

Europe, of course, won their third Ryder Cup in a row, and indeed their fifth in six contests, on the course that Arnold Palmer built at The K Club in Ireland. This time the action will take place on the course that Jack built and, make no mistake, he has been doing everything possible to ensure that this course provides the ultimate challenge to today’s golfers.

That came through loud and clear when he discussed the changes to the 11th hole. Nicklaus, on-site, admitted: “Where the green was, made that hole too benign. How the green got there, I’m not sure. Probably my mistake!” Honesty has always been a byword in Nicklaus’ vocabulary, and there is no question that he has swallowed his own pride to make changes to his original design to cater for the changes in the modern game. “The technology of golf has changed so the courses have to change, too,” he said. “The game has changed dramatically.” So for The 2008 Ryder Cup the course will stretch to 7,496 yards compared to7,167 yards in 2000 when Woods won the US PGA Championship.

Nicklaus acknowledges that the biggest challenge when he designed Valhalla was that he had two very distinctive and different pieces of property with which to work. The front nine meandered through a flood plain, and flooded quite often by Floyd’s Fork, so that situation had to be accommodated, and in Nicklaus’s opinion it has a Scottish feel to it. In contrast the back nine winds through trees and has a traditional North American feel about it. Nicklaus regards it as a thinking man’s course – you need to be
long and straight but you also need to be a good strategist.

Strategy might be the key word when the players of both Teams start producing the shots; but for Dwight Gahm and Jack Nicklaus this will be the realisation of a dream. The Bluegrass State may have more than 250 courses but all eyes will be on only one in 2008 when Valhalla Golf Club plays host to The Ryder Cup. “It was my vision to take the course to worldwide recognition,” said Gahm.

The Ryder Cup will truly see to that.

Mitchell Platts

This chapter was reproduced from The 2008 European Tour Yearbook, which can be ordered through the European Tour Shop by clicking here