'It was a nightmare!' Fans who received emails for Ryder Cup ticket lottery found event sold out



KOHLER -- The Ryder Cup 2020 will be held Sept. 25-27, 2020 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, and a lottery system was implemented to ensure the average person would have a fair shot at getting a ticket. Some said it was over-hyped and did not deliver.

"You get this e-mail a week beforehand saying, 'You're in,' so naturally, you're just really excited," said Courtney Shattuck.

The Ryder Cup is considered one of the most exciting international golf tournaments in the world.



"It's just a once in a lifetime experience, and for all these people who now don't get to enjoy it, it's really, really disappointing," said Shattuck.

Fans said they were excited to learn that a lottery system would be implemented for tickets

"We're given a code and told that we would need this code on the 16th to go in and buy tickets," said Larry Keleher.

Come 10 a.m. Wednesday, tickets were sold out.

"It was a nightmare!" said Shattuck.

"The system crashed," said Keleher. "Some people never got it, and the worst thing, though, is that within just a few minutes, all tickets were sold out. By the time they were sold out, they were already appearing on other sites."

What was a $150 ticket was selling for three to four times that on the resale market.

"It's just not fair," said Shattuck. "How did this many scalpers get the tickets before genuine people?"

Ryder Cup officials took to Twitter, announcing the sellout -- encouraging others to go to a sanctioned third-party site to buy what they could.



"That just drives the impression that the average Joe just never had a chance," said Keleher.

The fan backlash was so severe, U.S. Captain Steve Stricker took to Twitter to say organizers need to sell more tickets.



"There has to be a better way," said Keleher.

FOX6 News reached out to Ryder Cup officials to get their side of the story but did not immediately hear back.