Word that Luke Donald had provided members of the European Ryder Cup team with a VR headset to help simulate the noise at Bethpage Black drew plenty of headlines, but it seemed as though some of the players got more of a kick out of it as a novelty than anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rasmus H\u00f8jgaard called it \u201ca fun little gimmick from the team\u201d on Wednesday when he was asked bout the VR headset, while also saying that he had tried them on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a fun idea. Yeah, it gave us a picture of how the whole first tee looked like, which I thought was quite fun,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Team Europe elder statesman Justin Rose<\/a> revealed that he didn\u2019t use the virtual reality headset \u201cmore than five minutes,\u201d but appreciated the thought behind the idea of providing players with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rasmus Hojgaard plays his shot from the 12th tee during a practice round of the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Bethpage Black Peter Casey-Imagn Images<\/p>\n Rory McIlroy had revealed during the BMW Championship that Donald had provided the item to the European players after a team gathering.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was really, really interesting to put them on and get the feeling of what it was going to look like, obviously, with the 18th and the wraparound and the first and the stands and how a full Bethpage could look and feel,\u201d Rose said.\u00a0<\/p>\n REUTERS<\/p>\n However, the VR headsets were also useful for another reason inside the Rose household.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had more fun showing my family. Some people who aren\u2019t going to be here, my son, my daughter, my mom,\u201d he said. \u201cLike this is what the first tee is going to feel like.\u2019 That was really cool from that point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea behind it had been to help the players prepare for what are expected to be raucous crowds<\/a> at Bethpage State Park for the Team USA vs. Team Europe showdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n