The 2025 Ryder Cup is upon us, and this year’s event is set to be one of the most hotly contested matches in recent times. Europe’s settled team goes head to head against a revamped Team USA.
For a so-called exhibition, there is nothing else in golf that gets the blood pumping like the Ryder Cup. Fans love it. Players love it. Nerves, spirit, and belief are just as important as talent.
Team Europe are defending champions after a fantastic 16.5 – 11.5 victory in Rome in 2023. The action gets underway in the States on Friday morning. We’ve got everything you need to know ahead of the action.
The Big Talking Points…
Europe are heading to New York trying to buck the trend and become the first team to win on opposition soil since 2012. Over the last decade, it feels like it’s become increasingly hard for teams playing away from home. Even course setups have been tailored to the home side.
One of the big stories all year long revolved around Keegan Bradley. The American was picked as Team USA Captain in a bid to restore passion to the team after his heartache of missing out on selection in 2023.
Bradley then had a fantastic season himself, winning the Travelers Championship and finishing seventh in the FedEx Cup. He resisted calls to pick himself as a playing captain. But has he made the right choice?
The Teams
This year, each team gave out six automatic qualifying spots based on performance in regular tour and major tournaments. The other six players on the team were selected by the respective captains as Captain’s Picks.
Team Europe
For Team Europe, things are going to look very similar to Marco Simone in 2023. Only one change has been made to the team.
Rory McIlroy spearheads the team, collecting more than twice as many points as anyone else in qualifying. After a poor showing at Whistling Straits, he’ll be hoping that he can inspire Europe to a famous victory away from home. This comes after an outstanding individual season. He’ll be supported by a handful of Brits including Tyrrell Hatton, Bob MacIntyre, and Matt Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick gained a pick from Luke Donald despite a Ryder Cup record of one win and seven losses. Tommy Fleetwood has an excellent Ryder Cup record and is fresh from his first PGA Tour win. More experience comes in the form of Shane Lowry. Justin Rose, the oldest player at the event, is playing in his 7th Ryder Cup aged 45.
Scandinavian stars Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland are joined this time by Rasmus Højgaard. He replaced his twin Nicolai in the only change to the team from 2023. Sepp Straka gained another Captain’s Pick, as did Spaniard Jon Rahm after winning the season-long LIV Golf title.
Team USA
Team USA’s top two players in the qualification period both won major titles this year. JJ Spaun makes his Ryder Cup debut. Scottie Scheffler dominated again this season and will most likely play in all five sessions this week.
There are four rookies in the USA team this year. World number four Russell Henley joins Spaun as an automatic pick. Keegan Bradley then added Cameron Young and Ben Griffin. Griffin completed an amazing turnaround after giving up golf to work for a mortgage company just four years ago.
Team USA have struggled with chemistry in the past. Scheffler may well pair up with good friend Sam Burns. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay have a good record together. Both make their third Ryder Cup appearance this week.
LIV Golf representation comes thanks to Bryson DeChambeau, who is sure to attract big crowds and generate plenty of atmosphere. On the other end of the scale is Harris English. His calm and consistent temperament could make him an ideal foursomes partner for anyone.
The first two picks made by Bradley were for Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. They bring major-winning quality and strong match-play records to the team.
The Captains
After Team Europe’s success in Rome, officials named Luke Donald captain for the second successive campaign.. He will become the first European to lead the side in successive events since Bernard Gallacher in 1993.
The Englishman is calm and measured, and has shown high attention to detail when it comes to preparing his team. You could argue that he has played things safe by selecting five players who were in the 2023 team (Hojgaard himself was involved in the team room). Some supporters were pushing for the likes of Marco Penge or Aaron Rai, but Donald has gone with the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra.
Keegan Bradley will be the youngest Ryder Cup captain for more than 60 years, despite the fact that he is in the form of his life. The American is from the North East of the USA and will be counting on the support of the fans to help his team. There were no huge surprises when it came to his picks, with the likes of Thomas, Morikawa and Cantlay bringing plenty of experience to the side.
Bradley has chosen to start the event with the tricky alternate shot foursomes. Europe used this to great effect in 2023 when they won the first session 4-0.
The Course
This year’s Ryder Cup takes place at Bethpage Black, located on Long Island just an hour west of New York City.
New York sports fans are known as some of the most vocal and partisan around, so the European team can expect a hostile reception during the week. In fact, Luke Donald has actually had the players using VR headsets to simulate some of the sounds (and abuse) that they’re likely to face.
The course itself may be familiar to some of you as the host of the 2002 and 2009 US Opens, as well as the PGA Championship in 2019.
It’s known as one of the most demanding courses in the whole of the USA, stretching to almost 7,500 yards from the back tees.
How To Watch…
In the UK, Sky Sports Golf (with some coverage on Main Event) will show every session live, including practice rounds and ceremonies. Non-Sky subscribers can stream via Now TV with day or month passes. Coverage begins around 11:30am UK time on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday’s singles starting from 4:30pm.
For free-to-air viewers, the BBC will air nightly highlights on BBC Two and iPlayer from midnight, along with clips and digital content. BBC Radio 5 Live will provide more than 30 hours of live audio commentary.
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