Watching Ryder Cup 2025 and Team Europe's victory from Ireland was quite special - FOGOLF

DUBLIN, IRELAND — I am returning home after a pivotal Irish sports Sunday: attending the first NFL Dublin game (a tribute to the Rooney family and the Pittsburgh Steelers), while watching an unexpectedly dramatic Ryder Cup from an entirely different perspective.

I have golfed in Europe (including UK and Ireland) over 15 times and 100 rounds. Similarly, I have been to 10 Ryder Cups, both in America and abroad. But I’ve never been abroad while the Ryder Cup was happening at home.

This last week was a first. In fact, staying across from Adare Manor (the site of the 46th Ryder Cup in 2027) while the Bethpage Black festivities were occurring was indeed unique. I also watched Pittsburgh’s 24-21 victory over Minnesota in Dublin. The contrast in intensity was pretty obvious.

The Steelers won their hard-fought victory at 5:40 p.m. London time. Then, it was off to Temple Bar in central Dublin to watch the final day and experience the unbridled emotion as hometown hero Shane Lowry clinched the Ryder Cup and sent all of Ireland into another orbit.

All this also confirmed what everybody should already know: that golf is not just a sport in Europe. It is really business, economics – and “life.”

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It seemed that all 7,600 Irish pubs confirmed “golf as life.” The nearly 500 courses in the country produce over 15,000 jobs and 717 million Euros annually, but they truly are the historic connective social fabric of an entire nation. The American “Ryder Cup hype” begins after the last Major on the PGA Tour, but it is diluted by the beginning of the pro and college football seasons, the U.S. Tennis Open, NASCAR playoffs and other critical American sporting activities.

I just left a country where the first NFL Dublin game was an unmitigated success, yet clearly just a diversion for the Irish citizen and sports fan.

It’s not that Americans don’t take their Ryder Cup seriously. It’s just that the European professional golfer (I think) grows up with an intensity and a business focus that most American golfers probably don’t understand. It took this trip to confirm it. America has more than its share of splendid superstar golfers. Europeans imagine themselves as part of an ongoing business legacy.

Sep 28, 2025; Bethpage, New York, USA; Team Europe golfer Shane Lowry reacts after defeating Team USA on the final day of competition for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images