KOHLER, Wis. — Players on both sides of the 43rd Ryder Cup have said the event would not be the same without thousands of passionate fans at Whistling Straits. They all waited an extra year for it, and Friday’s opening contests proved it was all worth it.

Before the opening tee shots just after sunrise, 13 men in hockey jerseys and Viking horns warmed up the home crowd with an a cappella edition of the Star Spangled Banner. The American Marshals, as they’re known, make their seventh consecutive Ryder Cup appearance supporting Team USA.

Denny McNevin, the group’s oldest member at 69, said the first tee experience was one of the group’s best.

“It was really good, especially being back here in the U.S.,” McNevin said. “When we go over to Europe, we’re outnumbered.”

These Vikings, all from the Minneapolis area, fittingly made their Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla, where the Americans won the 2008 competition in Louisville.

The Marshals are far from the only group wandering Whistling Straits in matching Stars and Stripes. 

“You get to come to an event like this, dress like a fool, have the time of your life and live the dream,” said Hans Evenson, a Portland, Ore. resident and one of four men wearing matching American flag suits and Uncle Sam-style tophats.

If fans watch enough golf this weekend, they will realize TV cameras love the American Marshals perhaps most of all. McNevin said he is enjoying each moment of what will likely be his last American Ryder Cup before he hangs up his horns.

“It’s been great,” he said. “But you know what’s funny? We take the horns off, nobody knows who we are.”

But that’s okay, McNevin said. He didn’t come to Wisconsin to get famous. All he wants is to celebrate a Ryder Cup victory and the great state hosting it.