You know the excitement is real when a 4am alarm doesn't knock a pipe out of you. That Christmas morning feeling as a young lad, except this time you're hopping in an Uber to Grand Central to catch the 5.20am train to Farmingdale. At that hour, we later learned there were people already queuing to get into Bethpage. We barely got a seat on the train with all the fans, some of whom had already cracked cans.

The travel organisation was good. Endless shuttle buses lining both sides of the road at the station ready to ship everyone to the front. The sun was just rising when we walked under the long red banner welcoming us to the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Back in Long Island, a leafy suburb about 45 minutes outside of New York City.

The vastness of the course was breathtaking. Massive. I had butterflies in my stomach as we approached – I couldn’t even imagine what it was like to be playing. We arrived around 6.15am and caught most players on the range, hitting balls. The practice area sat right at the front of the entrance. You got to see the players warming up on the chipping green, in the bunkers, on the range before they hit the course. Surreal to see them this close. The contact and ball flight through the air was unreal. You need to see these guys up close to understand how good they are compared to us weekend hackers.

Our plan was to try and get to the grandstand on the first hole. But that was a distant fairytale by the time we got to the course. It was packed and from what we were told, mostly reserved for the more important. So we settled for a place behind the first green. As we walked down, a large plane with two fighter jets alongside pierced through the horizon and flew right above our heads completely unannounced, almost deafening us in the process and sending the crowd wild.

‘Merica, hey. We thought at the time it might have been Air Force One. Turned out it wasn't. Either way, the sound of those jets would........

© The Mayo News