Ryder Cup diary: Hovland hits hole in one to match gala’s coconut dessert

Elsewhere, Europe’s youngsters claim first blood on the course while Italy’s transport unions are dealt a blow off it

The official gala dinner on Wednesday night was a prime opportunity to engage in some of the Ryder Cup’s more stubbornly enduring traditions: golf-themed desserts (this time a lavish coconut cream effort called “Hole In One”), bad music (the singer-songwriter Phillip Phillips, who I’m sure played in the singles at Celtic Manor in 2010), and of course putting women in expensive dresses and making them stand silently while other people photograph them. As the European players and their wives descended the famous Spanish Steps, two of their number were conspicuously unaccompanied: Viktor Hovland and the vice-captain José María Olazábal. And so, in an arrestingly tender gesture, Olazábal and Hovland decided to couple up, posing hand-in-hand as they entered the Piazza di Spagna. A powerful stand against the heteronormativity and innate conservatism of professional golf? Or a piece of quite cringey banter? Probably depends how the rest of the evening panned out, to be honest.

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