The 2025 European team
Team Europe. To think this superstar melting pot gets along while speaking so many languages—English The King’s English, Northern Ireland English, Scouse, Cockney, Gaelicinfused English, Irish, Swedish, ValdostainfusedGerman, Norwegian, Spanish —and came to Bethpage from afar—Jupiter, Jupiter Bay, West Jupiter, Juno Beach, West Palm, Orlando, Ponte Vedra Beach, Stillwater, Scottsdale England, Spain, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Austria and Norway—prompts an obvious question: how do they mesh so well every two years?
It helps that the 2025 team returned all but one player from Rome’s winning squad. (Barring daily Clear check-ins, they could have interchanged the Hojgaard twins.) They also had Vice Captain, Alex Noren playing better golf than any eligible European, yet he was wearing an IFB all week listening to Thomas Bjorn issuing Code Red alerts about squeaky ducks on backswings (yes, a premium hospitality operation was placing them in cocktails). So for all of Dodo Molinari’s proprietary methods, the secret to European success remains the same: they overcome deficiencies, uncertainties, or unfettered egomaniacal tendencies because they are more comfortable together in the always awkward alternate shot format. The blue-and-yellow also mesh teams in four-ball to highlight player strengths. For instance, Shane Lowry puts the ball in play for Rory McIlroy so a player who thrives on the freedom to attack can swing away that much more freely. And when mental exhaustion caught up to McIlroy, Lowry went into bouncer mode and carried his battered buddy home. Lowry played his best golf this for McIlroy.
Each tried-and-true European partnership is meshed together so that even in defeat, they can accept when the Americans are better and move on to the next match. The other side doesn’t handle losses as well. The only downside to Europe’s process? They bolt so hard out of the gate that the early fractions mean they often fade down the Singles stretch. And at Bethpage their strategy nearly caught up with them.
Luke and Diane Donald surrounded by the 2025 team (PGA of America)
Luke Donald. Among the list of accomplishments during two winning Ryder Cup campaigns? A ten-year moratorium (at least) on debating how much Captains actually help their team. Plenty of lousy Captains have already validated the importance of a good leader via their odd decisions or poor communication. But Donald has channeled experiences as a player to make his players as comfortable as possible to handle the Ryder Cup’s awkward team elements in what is otherwise an individual sport. Sure, he won’t become a Brand Ambassador for the Garden City Hotel after he and wife Diane went all Martha Stewart on the room bedding, darkness shades, and scents. But his players appreciated the touches and the confidence boosts they get from the attention to detail. Donald’s Vice Captains appear empowered to get involved and were outworking their counterparts because they are enrollees or graduates of the Royal European Academy of Future Buggy Drivers.
As for a return gig at Adare Manor? Unlikely. But it’s fun to read what the players think (while slightly under the influence).
Q. In America we are under a constant quest of what makes a good captain. We’re still trying to figure it out. What do you think makes Luke such a good leader of men?
JON RAHM: There’s so many things that Luke has done outstandingly professionally, so perfect, that it’s hard to say one.
Without getting too much into it, the level of professionalism he’s shown us the last four years, his attention to detail in his post and his knowledge of Ryder Cup and the game and what we do on the golf course day in can day out is what made these last two Ryder Cups possible. He is the captain of this ship, and he’s led us better than I can see anybody leading us. He set the bar extremely high for the future captains.
Q. Anybody else interested in following that? What do you think makes Luke as good as he is?
LUKE DONALD: Just have a good 12 guys.
RORY McILROY: No, it’s more than that. His communication skills —
SHANE LOWRY: Let’s not give it away; how about that?
RORY McILROY: I’ll shut up.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Let it be, Rory. Let it be.
JUSTIN ROSE: The thing that’s most inspiring is to see how he’s grown as a leader as well.
RORY McILROY: Yeah.
JUSTIN ROSE: I think over the course of four years, there’s been a bit more commitment to himself and to the team. It’s been unbelievable to witness.
JON RAHM: Two more years.
SHANE LOWRY: Let’s do it again in Ireland (laughter).
LUKE DONALD: No comment.
Europe Just Gets It, Again. Ryder Cup fans are reminded every two years how the Europeans devote incredible amounts of time, money and resources to bind their team around a single cause, to position them to succeed, and use social media capture every move in a world where players thrive off of a certain kind of attend that only the European Tour Group can create. Win or lose, Europe rarely never gets much wrong—other than their highest-bidder venue embarrassment sticking the matches at way too many converted farm fields. The Euros learn from the past but always move forward by passing along or building upon a shared wisdom. They’ve made the Ryder Cup into the ultimate career milestone for millions of golfers. They wear dress shoes to gala dinners. And in making their efforts on and off the course so consistently good, they’re now all too regularly beating the United States. Then again, they’ve got a 400 million population advantage, a multi-century head start, and golf started on their continent, so they should be beating the United States.
Shane Lowry. While 1-0-2 hardly screams “MVP” status, the moody one and his streamlined physique relished pushing back at hecklers who launched horrible stuff his way, including Ozempic jokes despite his fitness driven weight loss. More remarkable was Lowry’s work with Rory McIlroy in four-balls and the Sunday Singles the capper: a birdie at the last to tie Russell Henley and secure retention of the Cup as Europe looked to be sinking under the weight of a USA surge. Lowry pulled off the halve all while scoreboard watching and obsessing over the Ryder Cup coming down to his match. Lesser men might have folded. “It was, yeah, like the worst two hours of my life. It was horrible. It was. But I said to my caddie walking down 18, ‘I’ve got an opportunity to do the greatest thing I’ve ever done today,’ and I did it. And I’m very proud of myself.”
Tommy Fleetwood is so good in the Ryder Cup he makes Piana brown look good (Michael Reaves/PGA of America)
Tommy Fleetwood. The grace. The swing. The Ryder Cup record. And the grace again, because someone had to break up Satuday’s 15th green brouhaha (AON Award gold!). Isn’t it reassuring to see a nice guy remain an on-course assassin without having to act like an overjuiced jag? If legendary status has not already been minted for Fleetwood, another stout Ryder Cup performance at least guaranteed he’ll never buy a pint in Europe ever again. Tommy Boy can pick his Captaincy year and refined brands are undoubtedly lining up to pad his bank account. Look at his oeuvre since 2018’s unforgettable debut in Versailles: 10-4-2 career record after going 4-1 last week. Fleetwood is 6-0-0 in foursomes play. That’s bonkers. His only “blemish” at Bethpage: losing to a last hole birdie by Justin Thomas.
McIlroy celebrates (PGA of America
Rory McIlroy. The Masters champion was brilliant for three matches before an onslaught of sicko comments painted a look of fatigue, sadness and disappointment. The same guy who was once ambivalent about the Ryder Cup has now played on his sixth winning Ryder Cup team, one short of Lee Westwood for most winning-team appearances of all time. With a 3-1-1 record for the week and 21.5 career points, McIlroy is destined for Europe’s First Team, All-Immortals division, trailing only Sergio Garcia (28.5), Nick Faldo (25.0), Bernhard Langer (24.0), Westwood (24.0), Colin Montgomerie (23.5) and Seve Ballesteros (22.5). Rory now has a second win on American soil Ryder Cup crossed off his bucket list and can focus on what matters: the Race to Dubai taking a long, restorative nap.
Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas of Team United States after Saturday’s four-ball match (Scott Taetsch/PGA of America)
Justin Thomas. No American demonstrated true sportsmanship or used his stature better than Thomas while still competing against McIlroy. Even as his Captain went with all both-sideism on the fan rudeness issue and was rarely seen admonishing the crude attempts at interfering with play, Thomas attempted to manage crowd noise during Saturday afternoon’s four-ball match. Thomas showed visible disdain when repeatedly having to ask for quiet but he likely prevented Saturday’s harassment from veering into a NATO situation. Thomas demonstrated what genuine “veteran” status and match play experience means in a Ryder Cup. Even better: he lost none of his competitive edge battling McIlroy and Lowry to a huge halve before dramatically stopping Fleetwood in Sunday singles.
