After years, months, weeks and even days of anticipation, the actual playing of the 2025 Ryder Cup has finally arrived. Golf’s most exciting event and one of the most compelling competitions in all of sports is scheduled to begin — barring no weather delays — with the first tee shot on Friday, Sept. 26, at 7:10 a.m. ET.
Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, New York — smack in the middle of Long Island and part of a 90-hole municipal facility owned and operated by the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation — is the venue for this event. The five courses comprising Bethpage golf are among the busiest in the country, with the Black Course notorious for its length, difficulty and challenge simply to walk.
THE SCENE
Add 50,000 spectators, many of them expected to be self-lubricated New Yorkers with a penchant for making their hometown feelings known vocally, and you have the makings of an electric event. Put them into what amounts to a makeshift football stadium for the week and you have all the makings of a spectacle that will thrill attendees and TV viewers alike.
As a team event unique to the sport, it also takes on special meaning to the players. Rory McIlroy, playing on his eighth Ryder Cup team, said it best when he talked about the event being “a legacy for history, both to past players and future ones.”
That elicits emotion on every shot. The players and caddies show that, and the fans react accordingly, adding to the spectacle if occasionally going overboard in how they express themselves. In no other golf event do the fans erupt in mass song.
While all eyes will be on the 24 players and the red and blue numbers on the scoreboard throughout the three-day event, the Black will have a say in the outcome.
COURSE SETUP
Unlike previous championships where the setup has been brutal, this week the Black has actually been set up gently — which likely means a birdie-fest rather than a slugfest. Thursday’s day-long, on-and-off rain further softened the course and will make things much less stressful for both sides.
Bethpage deserves its reputation as a “country club for the people.” The facilities, their conditioning and quality of overall presentation are that good. And for most golfers, the Black Course is a brute, which is why there is a warning sign at the first tee trying to discourage high handicappers from venturing out. If there’s a prop bet on the over/under of how many times you’ll see that sign on TV, take the over.
At 7,352 yards and par 70, the course is not long by modern championship standards. Frankly, unless it’s 8,000 yards these days, it’s probably not long enough to stress these players.
Fairway widths vary, some are from 20 to 32 yards across in the landing area, swaddled on both sides by a 6-foot wide intermediate rough cut at 1-¼-inch and then the primary rough at a very generous 2 inches. That relatively light cut for rough means that the penalty for missing fairways is not extreme.
Long hitters, in particular, like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, will be able to tee it up and freewheel, knowing that the cost of missing a fairway will be modest — certainly less than one-third of a shot to par, as opposed to closer to one-half a shot in a U.S. Open.
Interestingly, the fairway bunkers are not that big a factor off the tee for two reasons. One, they are protected by a belt of rough grass that limits the likelihood of a ball rolling into the sand; the golf ball has to fly in, rather than bound along a fairway edge into a bunker. Second, the carry over the bunkers tends to be in the 270–285-yard range, which nowadays is short of how far Ryder Cup players fly the ball off the tee.
Case in point: At the picturesque, double-dogleg 517-yard, par-5 fourth hole, an awesome diagonal bunker on the left that most of us mere mortals (from the middle tees) struggle to carry will not be a problem this week from the back tees. These players will worry about driving into a second massive cross bunker well past that first echelon.
Likewise, a frightening diagonal bunker that protects the right side of the 478-yard, par-4 fifth hole is an easy carry for these players, as are similar bunkers on the 524-yard, par-4 seventh and the 496-yard, par-4 12th holes.
NO DRIVABLE PAR-4 HOLES
The drama of match play often involves strategy at a drivable par-4. In his 2023 singles match, Tommy Fleetwood sealed the Ryder Cup for Europe when he drove the 16th green to defeat Ricky Fowler, who had driven into the water.
Unfortunately, Bethpage Black does not have such a short, reachable risk/reward par-4. But it does have two sharp dogleg par-4s that the longest hitters might try cutting short. That’s unlikely in the Friday/Saturday morning foursomes (alternate shot) format, where caution and keeping it in play are keys. But in the afternoon matches Friday and Saturday, the four-ball format encourages boldness by one player, assuming marginal caution on the part of the other.
So look for DeChambeau, McIlroy or Rahm to have a go at the short dogleg-right, 397-yard first hole. It’s downhill from tee to green, and as DeChambeau acknowledges, if it’s slightly downwind “I can get to the front edge. It’s only 360.”
Trying to cut the dogleg at the sharp dogleg left, 408-yard par-4 6th hole is less likely. The upslope to the green makes it impossible to run the ball up, and the likelihood is that a drive will only find steep greenside bunkering. It’s just easier to lay back a bit and play a wedge shot in from fairway.
So, sit back and bask in the decision-making and drama. It's sure to make for grand theater.
