The Presidents Cup may not be generating the enthusiasm officials had hoped for. The players are set and the captains have chosen their teams as Medinah prepares to host the 16th edition of the biennial event. But as the golf world counts down to Thursday’s opening tee shot, the excitement in the stands tells a different story. The clearest sign is in the business of the event itself: tickets are reselling 25-60% below face value, raising an uncomfortable question on the eve of competition—just how much interest is there in the Presidents Cup beyond the ropes?

Front Office Sports reporter David Rumsey flagged the situation on X: “The resale market is still cheaper than face value ahead of the Presidents Cup teeing off in a few hours. GA today was $119, and the Captains’ Club is supposed to cost $354.”

There is a sizeable gap between what the PGA Tour wants to charge and what fans appear willing to pay on the resale market. Ticketmaster, the official ticketing platform, lists daily ground passes at face value between $119 and $184, depending on the day: $119 for Thursday, $151 for Friday, $184 for Saturday, and $156 for Sunday. But those prices look considerably steeper once the tickets hit the secondary market. On platforms such as SeatGeek, resale listings as of Wednesday were down to $87 for Thursday, $126 for Friday, $156 for Saturday, and $134 for Sunday. The discount is even more pronounced for the Captain’s Club, where passes originally priced between $354 and $429 were being resold for as little as $143—another sign that the secondary market is struggling to match the value the PGA Tour has placed on the event.

In fact, FOS also spoke to two fans who bought Captain’s Club passes for a practice round as low as $40 each. Notably, the face value for these tickets was $204, roughly the cost of four beers at the course’s concession prices.

And yet, despite this, the PGA Tour has not received the number of fans it expected this year. Across four days of competition and two days of practice rounds, the expected number of fans is 150,000. But no general admission day tickets have sold out.

The dip in interest has not been limited to the galleries—it has also shown up on television screens. At the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal, NBC’s Sunday singles coverage averaged 1.37 million viewers, a 28% decline from the 1.89 million who tuned in for the same session in 2022 at Quail Hollow. The latest numbers offer little encouragement either, with Sunday’s coverage drawing just 1.21 million viewers, further highlighting the challenge the event faces in capturing and sustaining a wider audience.

Reporters have also noticed the lack of buzz. The inevitable question is why. Well, the comparison with the Ryder Cup is hard to avoid. Fans have brought up the comparison between the two more often. Last year at Bethpage, matchday tickets were around $750, and NBC and Peacock still averaged 3.22 million viewers for Sunday singles. That was the lowest for a U.S.-hosted Ryder Cup since before 2000. And yet, when you look at the bigger picture, it’s more than double the Presidents Cup’s 2024 Sunday number.

For background, the Presidents Cup has always been the younger, lopsided sibling. It began in 1994 as the tour’s answer to the Ryder Cup for players outside Europe, and the U.S. now leads 13-1-1. The International golf team’s only win in the Presidents Cup came in December 1998 at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. Interest did tick up when matches got tight, like the 15.5-14.5 result in South Korea in 2015 and the 16-14 finish in Melbourne in 2019. Fans have also explored the format, and the tightness of the rivalry was the real highlight. However, with Team USA being a consistent winner, the situation is not the same.

That being said, the interest could take a sharp hike this year. Dan Rappaport of Dan on Golf admits he has been part of the cynicism toward the Presidents Cup over the year. But this week he’s urging fans to buy in. He says, “The Presidents Cup is an easy target,” pointing to the “unfortunate designation of not being the Ryder Cup.”

Yet he gives a simple message: “Enjoy the competition for what it is and not for what it’s not.”

He also argues about the calendar. Once the Presidents Cup dies down and the schedule goes quiet, he says, “In the dog days of November and December, we will be wishing we had the Presidents Cup to watch.”

Regardless of what happens in the upcoming two months, there’s plenty to watch this week. Scottie Scheffler and Jackson Koivun share a team with Brandt Snedeker’s U.S. side, aiming for an 11th straight win. As for Geoff Ogilvy’s International, they are still chasing their first victory on American soil. Now, whether the fans actually pull through the gates, or at least the broadcast, remains to be seen.