All Europe on Friday at Bethpage – 2025 Ryder Cup Day 1 | The Early Wedge

All Europe on Friday at Bethpage – 2025 Ryder Cup Day 1 | The Early Wedge

[Music] [Applause] Welcome in. This is the early wedge. I’m Rick Game and that right there is Jason Soil and we are live live from the RDER Cup. Jason, hello and good evening to you. Good evening, Rick. And uh I see you’re smiling. I’m smiling. who might be the only two Americans on property here at Beth Page Black who are smiling right now. Uh, not a lot to smile about. I’m looking up at the big board here in the media center and I see a big number on the side of Europeans and a smaller number on the side of the Americans. We will get you up to date with how we got there and what to look for for tomorrow. Talk a little bit of strategy both on the golf course and off the golf course. But, uh, just just for this day, this is a long day, Jason, right? It’s an early start. Everybody wants to be here for the very first T-shot. Uh I’m always surprised at how fast alternate shot goes and I’m always surprised at how slow four ball goes. So it kind of drags into the evening, but uh your initial takeaways from what was essentially uh almost 12 hours of golf that was played today. I’m trying to find some silver linings for the American side. I’m trying to find some positives that Keegan Bradley’s guys can build on going into Saturday’s sessions. And I I just can’t sugarcoat it. This was a really bad day for the American side. we’ve seen over the last five RDER cups, Rick. Not only the home team win, but the home team play better in the forsomes format. That didn’t happen in the morning. And that’s a a bad precursor of what could come over the next couple of days because this looks like a European avalanche. The fact that they only need 14 points to retain where the US needs 14 and a half to win this thing. All signs are pointing in the other direction right now. Uh the good news is uh the difference from Rome at least on the first tea right out of the gate on Friday morning was that uh the Americans came with juice. They went Bryson Dshambo and Justin Thomas immediately out of the gate. Bryson and JT birdied the first hole and took a one up lead and that was one of the very few birdies that were made not only in that match. That was the only birdie the Americans made in that match but there were only a handful of birdies made by the Americans in general in that opening session. So what was immediately um a positive boost just never was sustained momentum for America. Yeah. And look, the momentum is going to shift throughout a Ryder Cup. You’re going to see es and flows. You’re going to see uh all of a sudden some red on the board and then some blue creeping on the board back and forth. There’s a whole lot more blue on this board today than there is red. And just that momentum never really kept up for the US side. Look, things can change tomorrow. If the Europeans can go out there and get five and a half points in these two formats on Friday, there’s no telling that the US can’t go out there and get five and a half or even six, six and a half tomorrow and make this thing a very close contest going into Sunday. But again, there there’s not a whole lot of silver linings right now for Keegan’s side. I I’ve got a few potential reasons why, a few things we can look at, Rick, and I’m sure you do, too. But um right now nothing seems to be working that well other than maybe Patrick Kentlay, maybe Cameron Young. I mean a couple of players you can point out that are playing some decent golf so far for the US side, but it’s few and far between. Three blowout victories for the Europeans in the first three matches of the day. Four and three Ram Hatton over Bryson Dshambo and Justin Thomas. Five and three. That’s Lagoberg and Matt Fitzpatrick over Scotty Sheffller and Russell Henley. And then a five and four victory for Rory Mroy and Tommy Fleetwood over Colin Morawa and Harris. Start with that second group there. Uh that second match there, the the Sheffler Henley loss, a big loss to Lud Viggoberg and Matt Fitzpatrick. The Americans were heavily favored in that matchup. Uh Jason and Scotty Sheffller uh could not get the lid off of anything. Really struggled to to put any two great shots together. What’s the level of concern about Scotty Sheffler in these team formats? A format that he has not really excelled in at this point in his career. There has to be some right now. I mean, it’s the old Tiger Woods comparison as well that when he’s playing as an individual, when he’s playing major championships, he’s by far the best player in the world. Then he gets into these team formats and just doesn’t look like the same player. And this was not the Scotty Sheoffller that we saw uh winning two majors earlier this year. It’s not the Scotty Sheffller that we’ve seen winning six times. It’s not the the Scotty that won the Procourt Championship in the last tuneup before the RDER Cup. This is just a different guy that looks out of sorts. That putter looks like 2023, Scotty, when he was hitting the ball better than everybody else, uh, but wasn’t putting well. His putting has actually improved under the toutelage and the watchful eye of Phil Kenyon this year, but it just isn’t happening for him. How about this stat, Rick? In his last five PGA Tour starts, Scotty Sheffller has three wins and two losses. Today, zero wins and two losses. Uh, that is what I would describe as hashtag not good. If you are uh Scotty Sheffler and the How about this one? I think the the second guessing of a captain happens a big question mark around Matt Colour Kaha Harris English pairing. It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. It was almost across the board unanimously a pretty bad uh decision that that we kind of thought that Keegan Bradley was making. Our suspicions come to fruition a five and four dropping by Rory Maroy and Tommy Fle. I will defend this one to an extent Rick. So I know that this was the least optimal pairing according to data golf and I understand that Morau hasn’t played well this year but first of all where else are you going to hide them? Uh you know I’d rather have Morau and English out there in forsomes than in four ball where they don’t make as many birdies as some of the other players that we put out there in the afternoon. The other part of this, and I know we don’t match them up like we do in the President’s Cup every other year, but I almost think they got lucky playing Rory Mroy and Tommy Fleetwood in the morning just because Rory and Tommy were going to beat anybody that the Americans were going to throw out. So, might as well throw out a sacrificial lamb to go out and lose to them. That said, I would not be surprised if we don’t see Colin Morawa tomorrow. Maybe a couple of others. Uh, I could be looking at Harris English, maybe even Russell Henley, although Keegan Bradley really likes Russell Henley. I do think he’ll be back. But I think at this point it’s like we’re done playing little league. We’re done giving everybody a chance. We’re done, you know, trying to spread it around and let guys go out there and see what they can do. Now it’s all hands on deck. Let’s just go to the best players and hopefully they play better than the other side. Yeah. The the shining stars from the opening session were Patrick Antley and Xander Schoffley who beat Victor Hofflin and Robert McIntyre two up in a tightly contested match that that went the distance. And this salvages the one point out of Friday morning fors for the United States team. Uh but being down 3-1 at home uh as the favorites clearly I don’t need to tell anybody not not the place that you want to be. What was your kind of um analysis your reaction because it’s a quick turnaround right? Right. I mean, it’s like 25 minutes from the time the last match is is finishing in the in the first session to the time the first match goes out in the second session. It’s a very very quick turnaround. And what were you feeling in those 25 minutes? So Rick, I actually went to what I said with you on the early wedge earlier this week, our best bet show, which is I like the US to win, but I don’t like them at that minus 150US 145 number they were priced at coming in. And I said wait a little bit. There’s always momentum shifts. At some point, Europe’s going to take a little control. That number is going to grow bigger. And the US, uh, what were they, plus 150, I think, after the opening session. All of a sudden, it’s like, hey, now’s the time. Press the button. Let’s go. Because 3 to one is hardly insurmountable. It’s not what you’d like. You’d rather be up 3-1 than down 3-1. That said, not insurmountable. And so, I’m sitting there thinking, okay, this is this isn’t too bad. This is okay. Go out there and win three of the four afternoon matches and four ball and uh we’re okay. But right now at 5 and a half, 2 and a2, it’s getting late early right now and the US needs to figure something out. They need to figure something out very very quickly in that team room. Yeah, we do need to figure some things out. We’ve got uh more blue on the board in the afternoon. We’ve got new pairings. We’re going to talk about those Friday afternoon fourball uh after a quick word from our partners. When you need your sports news all the time, we’ve got breaking news to bring to you. CBS Sports HQ gives you a snapshot of all the sports that matter to you. When you need your sports in a snap, find it on CBS Sports HQ streaming free anywhere you are. And we’re back. We’ve got the Sheffler Spawn group going out first. That’s four ball. Everybody plays their own ball against John Rom and Seb Straa. And a similar story here, Jason, is that that United States group, they birdie the first, they get one up, and then they do not win a hole the rest of the way. So now we’ve got a situation where Scotty Sheffller has been drubbed uh twice. He’s 0 and2. John Rom has looked like the alpha of these of this RDER Cup. He is 2 and 0. Uh again, this is this is a problem if your guy your number one player in the world uh is not earning you any points. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Uh Rick, is John Romney your MVP of day one for either side? I think he has to be right. He goes out in the first group uh in both sessions, a very emotional place to be. Beats Bryson Dshambo and Justin Thomas alongside Terara Latin. That’s great. Then he goes alongside Seph Straa. Kind of shepherds him around. Hits a bunch of big shots uh throughout that match and beats Scotty Sheffller again. I mean, yeah, this is about as good as it gets. Rahm had a hell of a day. I feel like we’ve collectively forgotten about John Rod. He went to live. He hasn’t played great. There’s been bits and pieces, little uh signs from him at the major championships. For the most part, over the last two years, it hasn’t been the same John Rom at the major championships. And yet, all of a sudden, we get that reminder that, oh yeah, kind of forgot John Rom is is one of the best player. I He’s a top five player in the world. If you want to convince me he’s a top three player in the world, I would certainly listen to that argument because he might be right there behind only Scotty and Rory. He’s that good. He’s that talented. And yeah, look, we we tend to forget it a little bit on Liv. I know everyone makes excuses and laughs it off that he’s got a million top 10 finishes in a row over there. Uh and they only have uh a certain number of players playing in a short field every single week. But look, he’s got a very high floor and obviously what we saw today once again is he’s got an extremely high ceiling. Yeah, it was it was incredible. I got to see a lot of uh a lot of shots that he hit and he was pretty dialed in for the vast majority of the day. Um, I’m going to skip down to match number three because that ended very, very early. Cameron Young got his first start of the RDER Cup alongside Justin Thomas and they took it to Lud Vgoberg and Rasmusard. Six and five was the final score. The Americans did not win, excuse me, the Europeans did not win a single hole in that match. Uh, Cam Young hit a bunch of great shots. Justin Thomas hit a bunch of great shots. He was also serving as the uh number one hype man of that group. Th This is what you expected. This was the only group all day long that was getting these American fans all fired up. The ironic part is that I spent most of those 25 minutes in between sessions trying to explain away on social media why Justin Thomas was going out there in the afternoon because people were just beside themselves why is Xander Schoffley not playing? Why is Justin Thomas out there? I was trying to explain that if JT was not out there, either it meant Bryson also wouldn’t play or either Cam Young or Ben Griffin wouldn’t play at all in day two or they would match somebody up who hadn’t played with one of those guys during any of the practice sessions starting on uh Monday and leading through Thursday this week. And so I I think that the tea leaves were out there that nobody was going to play with a guy I they hadn’t played with in those practice sessions. There was an obvious plan and JT and Cameron Young were a plan for the fourball session the entire time. JT showed up and Cameron Young showed that look I I think this could be a big stepping stone. I don’t think you know I don’t I don’t want to make this comparison Rick but four years ago we saw Scotty Sheffller so have his little comeupp John Ramen Sunday singles and all of a sudden within a year he was the best player in the world and he was uh playing some great golf. I don’t think Cameron Young’s going to go that far. Obviously, it would take a lot to be better and and ranked higher than Scotty Sheffler, but this could be a very big stepping stone for Cameron Young. Of course, won his first PGA Tour title at the Windham Championship uh just a couple of months ago. He’s been 11th or better in his four start since then. I think Cameron Young is coming. I think it’s going to be a good next two days for him. I would be surprised if we don’t see him in Forsomes in the morning alongside maybe JT again, maybe Bryson, maybe even Ben Griffin, although I doubt they put those two rookies together. So, probably JT or Bryson. And if he plays well, we’ll see him again in four ball. And I think it could be, like I said, a really good weekend for the only New Yorker who’s playing in this thing. Yeah, really great stuff there from Cam Young. I if he’s not out in the morning tomorrow, we’ve got some criminal uh criminality from from Captain Keegan. Uh the final two matches that we have not talked about both went the distance. Uh Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose did indeed put away Ben Griffin and Bryson Dshambo. Uh it it took probably longer than they would have liked. The Griffin Dshambo uh team hung together. This was a a phenomenal match where you know Griffin was making a bomb of a button in this group. But again, at the end of the day, it’s a full point for the Europeans. Rick, I walked the front nine with this uh match, and quite honestly, it should have been three up at the turn for the US side. Bryson had about a five-footer after driving the ball uh 50 yards past everybody else. And he wasn’t that much longer off the tea than even Justin Rose for much of the day, but when he wanted to get into one, he really got into one. He did that on six. had a really nice wedge in had about five feet and there was a big roar from the JT Cam Young group behind and instead of stepping away from that putt, he just stayed over it and he missed it. He lipped it out. Uh on the next hole, Ben Griffin rolls in about 35-footer. Crowd goes nuts. Everyone’s chanting for the USA. Fist pumps everywhere and then Justin Rose rolls one in a long one right on top of him. I I mean, yeah, if could have, would have, should have. Uh but yeah, that that very well could have been three up uh in favor of the Americans going to the back nine. Instead, it was only one up and then they just got they they got Fleetwood and rosed at the end of this thing. Look, those guys have so much experience playing not only in this format, but playing in the RDER Cup itself, playing for their team, playing for uh each other. And so that’s just what it came down to is those guys probably wanting it a little bit more than the American side. And then the main event, the final group of the day, Sam Burns and Patrick Klay going up against Roy Moy and Shane Lowry. This was exciting. It was entertaining throughout. Burns and Klay won the opening hole. Mroy and Lowry got it right back on the second. And then it was basically um highly contested after that. We saw Europe take the lead um on the what is that the sixth hole. It was uh they they added another on the seventh hole. uh US starts to fight back a little bit and then this ends for as great as this match was with Rory Mroy and Sam Burns hitting great shots and great putts on like 16 and 17. It ends in a little bit of an antilimactic way because Shane Lowry’s got a decent look for birdie on 18. He misses it. Rory Maroy and Sam Burns basically from the same distance. I don’t know what it was 9 10 feet on the last hole. Both with a chance to get the full point. Uh they both go begging and this match ties. is our first tie, first and only tied match of the day where both of these teams get out of here with half a point. Yeah, don’t you hate those tied matches? Now you got to find that half function on your keyboard and try to figure out how to do that. It’s a lot easier with the full points. In any case, uh I thought Rory uh looked really poor with a putter down the stretch. It wasn’t the usual Rory that we see at the RDER Cup, but him and Shane know how to kind of grind it out together. Patrick Kentlay without his buddy Xander beside him played really well until he got to 14. stuffed one on 14 and all of a sudden the crowd starts feeling some energy. The there’s some momentum going on. The US going to win the hole. He spent about 12 minutes over this three-foot putt on 14 and missed it. Lipped it out and and then the Europeans just kind of held serve from there. I mean, that was a big moment, not only in that match, but in the entire thing because if this gets to 53, Kelly makes that putt, everything else comes out the same over the last four holes. Five holes that this is 5-3. That sounds a lot better than five and a half, two and a half for the Americans. Yeah, we were walking to the AT&T with this group and everything else was done and it was, you know, there’s a chance it could have been 6’2. The chance could have been five and a half, two and a half. Chance could have been 5-3. And those are it’s a very, very big difference. It ends up being five and a half, two and a half. The Europeans have to feel uh great about their day one just like they did in Rome. to check in on what those current odds are to hoist the RDER Cup. Europe now minus 165. The United States plus 190. Uh three points is not insurmountable, Jason, but uh one of one of three days is done here. They’re just going to have to reverse this score tomorrow. Uh they’re going to have to go out there and and find something in the neighborhood of five and a half tomorrow just to get this thing a little bit more even. And I I keep going back to the fact that your bullying needs that 14 to retain. And can you imagine if this thing ended 144? Uh we we here in America don’t like ties overseas. They’re like, “Okay, we go nil nil in a soccer match and we’re like, we’re okay with it and we don’t have to go to penalty kicks.” Over here, we’re like, “All right, where’s overtime? Like, where’s pull out an envelope or something? Let’s get the captains out there, get their sticks, let’s figure something out. Let’s flip a coin. Whatever we have to do, match scorecards.” But uh if this thing actually ends as a tie, Europe takes that trophy back home and the US doesn’t get it. So that that one half point that could be very big, could loom large with Europe needing only what eight and a half more points over the next two days just doesn’t seem like that much. Um but again, uh we we’ve seen a lot of weird stuff in RDER Cups in the past. I think to me, Rick, I I think the magic number is 106 for the Americans. they can keep it to 106 at the end of the day tomorrow. And quite frankly, that’s uh losing four and a half to three and a half uh in the eight matches tomorrow, which uh probably isn’t the goal to to lose four and a half, three and a half, but keep it to 106. That’s the same deficit the Americans were down in 1999 at Brooklyn. Of course, uh they came back the next day. It’s the same deficit the Europeans were down in 2012 at Madina, and of course, they came back and won it. I I think that it’s not the place you want to be, but anything more than 10, if it’s 10 and a half, if it’s 11, this thing’s all but over going into Sunday. We know what they need to do, but can they do it? Will they do it? What do What do you think? Because we’ve got a problem where uh you know, Scotty Sheffller is 0 and2. You’ve got confidence in maybe six guys on the United States team. You’ve got to play eight of them in each of these sessions tomorrow. the Europeans are, you know, kind of playing with house money like you said. I mean, even if they lose the session tomorrow, you know, they could lose Smart, I still have the lead going into there’s just a lot of really good outcomes now for the Europeans as the math starts to get a little bit more difficult. So, what you know, what does your what does your head tell you? What if you’re sitting here tonight? Are you making a click anywhere? I’m really not. I I would love to click on the US side at a big plus money number right now. Um, but I I just can’t do it. That said, they need to start strong on Saturday. They need to get up early. This crowd today was it was good. It wasn’t demonstrative. It wasn’t uh yelling in in back swings like I thought might have happened and maybe we’ll see it on the weekend. Maybe there’s a little more embibing on the weekend and uh the fans get a little more into it. We’re not hoping for it. We’re just saying that uh it could happen. But quite frankly, if the American side is down the whole day, if they don’t really grab any momentum, the fans are going to sit on their hands a little bit more and they’re not going to get as into it as I think Keegan Bradley would like him to see. Keegan Bradley was out this morning uh chanting, “Let’s blank go uh to the crowd at 5:30 this morning on the first te.” He wants them fired up. You can’t manufacture that though. You have to get them fired up by playing good golf. And it’s really hard to get behind a team that’s struggling, a team that’s not putting points on the board. And whatever sport it is, and certainly in this one, uh the New York crowd is a fickle crowd. Uh they they’ve seen losing teams. Uh the Jets and Giants have exactly as many wins as the US side does uh in the RDER Cup over the last couple years. And so uh they need to turn it around. They need to get the fans involved. But yeah, I’m Rick, I’m not clicking that number. Are you are you going anywhere near that one? No. This is um you know, coming into the week, I was really pleased with the continuity of of team Europe. They seemed like they were experienced and they were ready to go from the jump and there was a lot of kind of soulsearching and game searching from the United States. And now you have two options. You can stick to the plan which got you uh you know a three-point deficit in the opening day or you can start throwing things at the wall. You can start doubling down. You can start throwing hail Marys. That’s not always great either. So, um, it it is it is going to need need to be a decisive victory for United the United States on Saturday. I don’t love the pathway for them to be able to do that. So, so no, this is this is me looking at matchups, checking in on on some of the prop markets. Again, I’m I’m invested in Europe pre-ournament and I’m not making any adjustments to that stance um right now. I I love the football analogy there and I’ll extend that. Keegan Keegan Bradley and I are both fans of the New England Patriots. We talk Patriots football a lot when we’re out at tournaments and um this is almost like they they tried a little dig and dug almost like a Patriots offense. You know, throw it to the tight ends a little bit. Try to run the ball up the middle. You see what happen at some point you’re down two touchdowns. You got to start throwing it down the field. We’re not going to be able to go uh three yards in a cloud of dust and pick up uh 14 points in the second half. So, they’re playing from behind and you throw out there whatever you can. If that means that uh Scotty Sheffller and Bryson Dashambo, who never practiced together, were never talking about playing together, go out and four balls together tomorrow afternoon, hey, you make adjustments and you tell the guys tonight, look, we might see some weird stuff tomorrow. We might have to do some things, throw some stuff against the wall and see what happens, see if it works. And um that should be Keegan Bradley’s theory right now is that any idea could be a good idea. and he’s got a cadre of assistants with him. The assistants have assistants. The assistants assistants have assistance. The assistants the regional manager is out there. Uh there’s a lot of people out there driving carts, handing out water, giving snacks to the players, doing whatever it takes to help the team. If any one of them has an idea, if I’m Keegan Bradley, I’m all ears. Yeah, it’s time to uh get freaky and embrace it. That is what you should do. The good news is whatever happens on Saturday, we’ll be here to get you up to date and look forward to Sunday singles, which is always incredibly fun as well. So, Jason Soila, thank you very much. I know you’re sitting probably just uh 30 yards behind me at this point. So, it’s nice to Yeah, good good to good to see you virtually and and physically as well. But, uh big thanks to producer Josh who’s doing all the hard work for us tonight. You can follow Jason on Twitter, of course, and make sure you see what’s going on uh from the CBS accounts as well. But for now, I’m going to say that’s all. We’re going to wrap it up for the early wedge, and we’ll catch you next time. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Rick Gehman and Jason Sobel recap Day 1 of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. A slow start for the Americans, Europe’s elite foursome line up and a Saturday morning preview!

0:00 Intro
1:30 Takeaway from Day 1
4:00 Morning Foursomes controlled by Europe
9:35 Afternoon Fourball a more competitive affair
18:00 Betting Markets

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