Following a convincing Ryder Cup victory at Marco Simone just outside of Rome two years ago, a champagne-drenched Rory McIlroy made a declaration for all to hear: “One of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup. And that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage [Black].”
This is a stance McIlroy has maintained for the better part of a decade, and his boisterous statement roused his compatriots, their fists pounding on the table as if to say, “We’ll be right there with you.”
Two years later, McIlroy’s teammates have largely kept their promise. Europe returns the same captain, Luke Donald, and 11 of its 12 players from the 16.5 to 11.5 triumph over the United States. The lone outlier, Rasmus Højgaard, is replacing his twin brother inside the ropes; Rasmus was inside the team room that entire week in 2023.
It’s easy for Europe to be that confident following that kind of performance, and it’s nothing that is out of the ordinary for winning Ryder Cup teams, but McIlroy’s message clearly resonated with his peers, and it’s one he continues to voice as the 2025 Ryder Cup approaches this week at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.
McIlroy shared a similar sentiment with the Great Britain & Ireland team ahead of the Walker Cup, and it is a tactic that Americans hoping for his downfall may not realize is extremely heady. Set to play in his eighth straight Ryder Cup, McIlroy has shouldered the burden of expectations for his 11 teammates with his consistent proclamation. Plus, he’s engendering belief in the mission: Hey, if Rory is saying this, it must be true.
The 2025 Ryder Cup has been labeled the golf event of the century before a golf ball has even been sent through the air. The build outs and hospitality tents are larger than ever. The attendees more famous. The expectations higher than before — not only for the event itself but both sides.
For Europe, this is the best chance to raise the Ryder Cup on foreign soil since the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. That squad consisted of McIlroy and Justin Rose but also the man who is leading the charge this year in Donald. The Europeans know what it takes, and they know they have the skill, cohesion, continuity, strategy, and most importantly, the team to do it.
It’s a monumental task, sure, but one Europe is confident it can achieve. The team has gone so far as to use virtual reality headsets to simulate the raucous Long Island crowd. Members of the team know their roles and responsibilities, whether it is veterans tasked as mentors, fiery competitors serving as spark plugs or stars asked to go out and play 4-5 matches. They know themselves, and in the Ryder Cup, that has meaning.
“We all walk into that team room as he equals, and we walk out of that team room as equals,” McIlroy said when discussing the lone rookie on the team at the BMW PGA Championship. “[Rasmus] needs to see himself on the same level as Jon Rahm, myself or anyone else. We are just 1 of 12. We are just 1 of 12, and when we walk in there, we hopefully will make the collective group stronger.”
2025 Ryder Cup team breakdown: Tale of the tape
|
OWGR top 20 |
9 |
6 |
|
Data Golf top 20 |
9 |
7 |
|
Players’ Ryder Cup record (combined) |
26-22-8 |
59-50-19 |
|
Players with Ryder Cup wins |
7 |
11 |
|
Major champions |
6 |
5 |
|
Total majors won (combined) |
13 |
10 |
|
Rookies |
4 |
1 |
|
Top 20 in strokes gained (since July) |
8 |
7 |
The data backs up McIlroy’s sentiment. The United States roster, combined, has played in 56 Ryder Cup matches. Europe’s squad has combined for 59 Ryder Cup match victories. It’s one rookie for the Europeans versus four for the Americans.
Justin Thomas suddenly slots into the title of most experienced on the red, white and blue side as he gears up for his fourth Ryder Cup — the same number played by Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick, who all trail McIlroy and Rose on their team in terms of overall appearances.
The known quantity in this equation is Europe. It has partnerships ready to roll out of bed and play if staying on the same path, maintaining the bonds of Ryder Cups past.
But just because something is unknown doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad.
In fact, the unknown can be a massive positive, and the United States hopes that rings true — especially in a home Ryder Cup. Since 1983, the home team has gone 15-5 in the Ryder Cup, and the last time it was contested on U.S. soil, the Americans won in record-setting fashion, 19 to 9.
That year, a rookie named Scottie Scheffler took down the baddest man in golf, Rahm, in Sunday singles. This year, Scheffler enters the competition as that bad man and in need of the United States’ four rookies to fill his role from four years ago. Enter the initial unknown.
It’s hard to classify them as rookies considering most are PGA Tour veterans, but in terms of the Ryder Cup, Russell Henley, J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin and Cameron Young are basically freshmen again. Sure, they are, respectively, the world No. 4, the U.S. Open champion and the sixth and seventh best players in the world from a statistical standpoint over the last three months … but they are still unknowns in the context of the Ryder Cup because they have never done it before in this setting, on this stage and in front of this many people.
The United States will provide its answer on the course, while captain Keegan Bradley will offer his answers by the decisions he makes (largely, playing partners and order of competition) and his overall tone. Chosen as U.S. captain without even a prior phone call to gauge his interest — his contention for the role largely due to his emotional episode of Netflix’s “Full Swing” — Bradley has taken the massive opportunity in stride.
He held a pseudo training camp in Napa, California at the opening event of the FedEx Cup Fall where 10 of his 12 players teed it up. He’s held team dinner after team dinner, left inspirational notes in his players’ lockers throughout the year. He’s taken a different approach to this captaincy because he recognized he is different from those selected in the past. Again, not a bad thing.
“I keep trying to remind myself as well that I was chosen to do this job to do it maybe a little differently as well,” Bradley said at the Procore Championship. “Me being the captain isn’t really the status quo of what the U.S. side has done. I remind myself and the vice captains all the time that we were picked to do this job because we wanted a little shift in what we were doing.”
Bradley was inside the ropes dishing out high fives as if the Procore was the Ryder Cup. He has been lauded as a tremendous communicator already, revealing time and time again that all he thinks about every waking moment of his life is this Ryder Cup.
On his mind, then, must be the play of his known players — those Ryder Cup veterans — which has suddenly turned questionable. In a weird twist of fate, the golf gods have it so the Americans’ most in-form players (outside of Scheffler, of course) are their four rookies. The mainstays of Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and even Bryson DeChambeau — to a certain extent — have clouds of doubt hovering above them.
Thomas has played in three Ryder Cups; in all three, he was paired with Jordan Spieth, who is at home in Texas on his couch. Schauffele is the third-ranked player in the world but is coming off a season in which he failed to qualify for the Tour Championship for the first time in his career. He has not played since the BMW Championship and not hit a consequential shot in a weekend round since 2024. (Seriously.) Morikawa has been unable to chip or putt in 2025, and how DeChambeau is utilized could swing the Ryder Cup one way or another.
Ironically, that sounds a lot like what the Europeans used to go through every two years: players like Ian Poulter or Sergio Garcia — prior unknowns — becoming known when it mattered the most. No one from the U.S. is touching their Ryder Cup pedigrees this week, but there is a reason the “great unknown” exists. Who are we to look into the future with certainty, particularly across 28 matches in a Ryder Cup.