FARMINGDALE, New York — Well, that was close — as it usually ends up being.
The last thing anyone expected from the 45th Ryder Cup was a European steamrolling in a road match on U.S. soil. And just when it seemed after two days that the Europeans were in for a lopsided victory, the Americans came roaring back Sunday to make things very exciting.
So what does the Europeans' 15-13 win mean moving forward?
1. SMALL DIFFERENCES ARE DECISIVE
For one thing, the remarkable U.S. comeback Sunday — six wins, five halves and only one loss in the singles matches — puts aside any denigrating chatter about the Americans being losers. Sure, they lost badly the first two days in foursome and four-ball, down 11.5-4.5, but only because the Europeans played so amazingly well. The loss was akin, in the mind of Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, to the kind of play Tiger Woods showed in his runaway 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. In that event, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ernie Els and played laudable golf. Woods just played like Superman.
Small differences in play can have major consequences in match play, making what look like statistical routs actually the accumulation of slight advantages. Case in point: Saturday afternoon’s four-ball match in which Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose beat America’s premier twosome, Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, 3 and 2. In that better ball, the U.S. recorded a very impressive 9-under par score through 16 holes. Too bad for them, though, the Europeans were 11 under.
2. THE COURSE WAS NEUTERED
Course setup is the responsibility of the home team captain. Interestingly, nobody from the U.S. team, the PGA of America or Bethpage Black spoke openly all week about what, if anything, captain Keegan Bradley asked for in terms of course setup. The rough was mowed down to a measly 2 inches mid-week before the matches, leaving players with virtually no fear of losing control of their golf ball when hitting approaches from off the fairway. It did not matter where you drove the ball, you could get to the green from there. That reduced the notoriously difficult Bethpage Black course to a pitch-and-putt exercise.
"I definitely made a mistake on the course setup," U.S. captain Keegan Bradley said. "I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition. For whatever reason, that wasn't the right way to set the course up. The greens were as soft as I've ever seen greens without it raining. Especially here, it can get pretty firm, and they never firmed up."
The lack of impunity for tee shots was compounded by a design that saw only one set of fairway bunkers — on the par-5 13th hole — as a factor the first two days. Finally, when the wind came up Sunday out of the west, sand became a factor on the par-4 18th, with its acres of cauliflower bunkering. It proved very dramatic watching Rory McIlroy and Russell Henley on Sunday trying to recover from the fairway bunkers. Too bad that wasn’t more of a factor all week. But that’s what happens when a drive carrying 285 yards is enough to cover a bunker.
In an era when the average drive on the PGA Tour is now 303.7 yards, there was little strategic consideration to engaging bunkers off the tee. There is no better example in all of golf of how distance has rendered classic shotmaking strategy irrelevant. The 2025 Ryder Cup was little more than a putting contest. And the Europeans putted better.
3. MINDLESS XENOPHOBIA IS WORTHLESS
In retrospect, the U.S. team spent too much time trying to drum up “motivation” that had nothing to do with golf. In the process it showed how trite it is to invoke xenophobic patriotism. The most cringeworthy example of this can be seen in a video in which the U.S. team, gathered around the first tee early one morning, listens to New York City fireman Chris Mascali talk about how the 9/11 attack — in which his firefighter dad was among the nearly 3,000 victims — should inspire the U.S. team to victory.
You cannot get more misguided about history and politics than this trivialization of a national disaster. Thinking this is helpful to American chances is part of the behind-the-scenes problems that need to be re-examined.
4. THE CROWD WAS A MOB
It is one thing to have sing-song fans attired in colorful gear cheering on their squad. Great. But enthusiasm and support crossed the line Saturday — if not before — when way-too-many fans started personalizing their preferences with vindictive, unprintable verbal assaults, most of them aimed at McIlroy and his family.
The tone for this inexcusable frat house verbal vomiting was set Saturday morning, before the first tee shots. That’s when a cheerleading emcee with a mic named Heather McMahan tried to motivate crowd support among those in the stands behind the first tee by leading them in a chant of "F-U Rory." She subsequently apologized and resigned her post.
But the incident was just the start of an ugly day in which fan support started looking like what sore losers revert to when they have lost, refuse to accept it and revolt by destroying all propriety and procedure. When passion turns into reckless assault we have crossed a crucial line. It’s become all too common a response in an era of heightened partisanship.
Amped up security and some considerable self-censorship by fans allowed the focus Sunday to stay on golf. Moving forward, the PGA of America needs to address this and take more corrective action rather than assume covertly that partisanship benefits the U.S. squad.
5. SOMETHING IS MISSING
Maybe the Euros just care more. Or they get along better. Or their upbringing in scruffy golf clubs rather than fancy country clubs replete with coaches, training devices and video instruction just inclines them more to playing shots and learning to play golf. They are not as robotic, for sure. They adjust better to adverse circumstances, whether it’s greens slowed by rain, New York-style bleacher rants or just the plain old joy of competing and winning.
In retrospect, the PGA of America’s decision to pay the U.S. players ($200,000 each directly, plus $300,000 for designation to a charity) contributes to a widespread perception that there is a different motivational structure at work here. European captain Luke Donald alluded to it twice in his remarks at the opening ceremony when he made clear that his squad did not need any financial inducement to win.
For the U.S. team going forward, participation needs to be based on one standard: the desire to compete at the highest level and to care deeply about winning. Maybe that wasn’t what led to their ultimately losing. Bryson DeChambeau, the one LIV outsider on the U.S. squad, spoke earlier in the week about how making the team after being excluded in 2023 was part of a deeply felt "passion project." It’s the same intensity we saw Sunday as he climbed out from under a five-down deficit after seven holes to halve his singles match with Matthew Fitzpatrick. That’s what the Ryder Cup ought to be about.
The Ryder Cup is a great competition, but one that has to be protected from getting too monied, too vitriolic and too caught up in cheap patriotism.
