The 45th Ryder Cup will be staged for the first time at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in front of New York crowds. Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr., John Hopkins, Scott Michaux and John Steinbreder gather for a virtual roundtable to discuss what’s arguably the most anticipated golf event of 2025.
New York sports fans are not known for being demure. As volatile as the Ryder Cup has become, does this year’s run the risk of being over the top?
Green: Since the day it was announced that the Ryder Cup was coming to Bethpage Black, the crowd has been part of the storyline. I suspect it will be loud and rowdy but not as over the top as some fear. It will be a disappointment, though, if the crowd underperforms.
Hopkins: There is that risk, of course, but Luke Donald recently said he was satisfied with the PGA of America’s explanation about crowd control. In all this talk of what might happen this week what is forgotten is some of the scenes U.S. golfers experienced on this side of the Atlantic. We over here should not get too high and mighty about bad behaviour towards Europe teams visiting the U.S.
Michaux: It’s baffling why anyone feels the need to shout horrible and abusive things at players, but they do it every time – even in Wisconsin! There’s a small hope that the $750 daily price tag will keep out the worst offenders, but I doubt it. New Yorkers will be New Yorkers. All the things normally unacceptable in golf – booing, cheering misses, etc. – are fair game in the Ryder Cup. Just don’t be crude and abusive.
Steinbreder: The crowds at Bethpage will be tough at times. But with so much corporate entertaining going on, the grounds will be populated by decidedly higher-brow golf fans than you might have seen at past tournaments there. And I do not expect those folks to get nearly as raucous as the ones who attended previous tournaments on the Black, no matter how much white wine they drink in their hospitality suites.
What or who is most responsible for the Ryder Cup becoming the behemoth that is it on the biennial golf calendar?
Green: It took the Americans getting beat on a regular basis for this to matter as much on this side of the Atlantic as it did overseas. Seve was a big part of it but the denting of American pride has driven the Ryder Cup to where it is today.
Hopkins: The emergence of Europe’s five world-class players in the ’80s started Europe’s revival which helped turn the event into a legitimate contest. Seve Ballesteros’ influence for Europe was inspirational to the teams he competed on or captained. There is a view that Europe won in 1997 at Valderrama in Spain when Ballesteros was captain because his men were afraid of what he would say to them if they lost. Even after his death his influence was evident, at Medinah in 2012 and Rome 2023. Another reason: Match play can be presented well on television. Add in the dramas of 1991 (The War on the Shore), 1999 (Brookline and the U.S. comeback), Paul Azinger’s feisty and skillful captaincy at Valhalla (2008) and 2012 (The Miracle of Medinah) and it becomes clear why the Ryder Cup is no longer a golf event but truly a worldwide sporting spectacle with television viewers in six of the seven continents.
Michaux: Obviously opening the door to Continental Europe changed the competitive balance, but Seve in particular is the singular figure who created the passion that lives long past him. He remains the emotional heartbeat that fuels Team Europe and his ghost still haunts Team USA. His competitive DNA passes down each generation. The Americans have no similar north star that guides them.
Steinbreder: Seve. No contest. His play, his competitive spirit, his ability to get under his opponent's skin and the way he made his teammates believe in themselves took the event to new heights. And his influence infuses the Ryder Cup to this day.
A.W. Tillinghast’s Bethpage Black is known for being a brutal test of golf. Will it be a great setup for a match-play event?
Green: Typically, the golf course is a small character in the Ryder Cup but Bethpage Black is different given its oversized personality. Driving the ball in play will be critical for both sides and the last four holes, if matches get that far, provide a fantastic stage.
Hopkins: I’d rather see players struggling with the well-known difficulties of this course, as well as the play of their opponents, than some of the easy holes that Hazeltine offered in 2016 when the closing hole was limp, a tee shot and a flick with a wedge. An event of this magnitude deserves a setting of majesty and historical significance.
Michaux: Tee to green, the Black is a beast – even if a favorable setup takes some bite out of the rough. But on the whole, Bethpage probably has the flattest and easiest greens of any major course. Putts will be falling from everywhere with regularity. It always comes down to who makes the most, but this one will stand out for the sheer volume – both in makes and roars.
Steinbreder: The Black is most definitely a championship course, for stroke or match play, and will turn out to be a wonderful place for a Ryder Cup.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley elected not to pick himself to play and only one LIV golfer (Bryson DeChambeau) is on the American roster. Is Team USA as good as it needs to be?
Green: As much as I would have liked to see Bradley be a playing captain, he made the careful decision because Ben Griffin, Cameron Young and Sam Burns played their way onto the roster. It's a formidable American team.
Hopkins: Bradley’s gesture enhanced his standing in the eyes of his teammates who appreciated his selflessness in forgoing an opportunity to play in a Ryder Cup. Had Bradley played, then I am not sure he could not have totally excluded from his mind the thoughts he would have had as captain. He might have been distracted in other words. In Europe we don’t think much of the playing captain idea. Paul McGinley, a non-playing winning captain, pooh-poohs it and that’s good enough for me.
Michaux: The U.S. roster would be better as a team (and a story) if Keegan was playing instead of Collin Morikawa. He’s not an appreciably better putter than Morikawa (who continues searching for a magic wand), but he’s objectively better in the moments that matter. The Americans will mostly miss Bradley’s passion on the course.
Steinbreder: Bradley did the right thing not picking himself for his team, as the job as team captain has simply become too big for a man to be able to play and lead at the same time. But perhaps he could have assembled a stronger squad by passing on old standbys like Justin Thomas and even Patrick Cantlay in favor of younger bucks who really have been playing well, like Chris Gotterup and Maverick McNealy – and who would have been happy to wear whatever hats the PGA gave them.
No road team has won since the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. So which team, captain or marquee player is under the most pressure to deliver a win?
Green: Scottie Scheffler seems unperturbed by the expectations that now surround him and if he continues to play as he has, he could be the American hero this year just by being who he is. It's a role I think he will quietly relish.
Hopkins: The home captain and team are more under pressure than the visitors because home advantage creates an expectancy of victory. So Scottie Scheffler as world No. 1 is expected to deliver a lot of points and Keegan Bradley is expected to captain his team to victory. If the U.S. lose, people will say he should have picked himself. This time Rory McIlroy has raised the temperature by some rather un-British, gung-ho comments in advance. Not much British reticence there. He is under pressure to deliver as he so notably didn’t in 2021 when he won only one point from four matches at Whistling Straits and left in tears.
Michaux: There is no pressure on Europe at all. It’s playing with house money and an experienced roster that can handle the environment. The bigger pressure is on U.S. veterans Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa to show up and play to their potential and not to the level they’ve been on lately. Without them stepping up, a home upset looms.
Steinbreder: Luke Donald has his Ryder Cup win from Marco Simone, so he is essentially playing with house money and the Euros are the visiting team. But Bradley bears the burden of the Americans being expected to win, especially with this year's competition being a home game. As a result, he will be feeling the most heat.
Who wins this Ryder Cup?
Green: The Americans win, 15-13.
Hopkins: It is said that 75 percent of victories in team sports go to home teams, which gives the U.S. an edge that is countered by the Ryder Cup experience of the Europe team, which has only one rookie. It has not always been the case in the past. There is scarcely room to slide a piece of paper between the two teams but I’ll go for Europe by a whisker, an eyelash or a fingernail.
Michaux: Team Europe, 15½-12½, as Jon Rahm goes unbeaten.
Steinbreder: The Yanks win, because all things being equal, the host team usually does. (Though that does not necessarily mean I am rooting for them.)
