The excuses for Team USA’s Ryder Cup defeat at the hands of Europe are still rolling in a week on from the action at Bethpage, this time from long-time golf analyst Mark Rolfing.
Respected NBC Sports analyst Rolfing, 73, believes United States captain Keegan Bradley lost the Ryder Cup as early as this summer when deciding to opt with foursomes before fourballs on the Friday and Saturday of the biennial contest in New York.
Rolfing finds it hard to believe why Bradley would want to send typically Europe’s best format (foursomes) out first.
Fourballs first would have played to USA’s bigger strength, in the eyes of Rolfing, and helped to get the boisterious Bethpage crowd more into it.
Leaked:
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As it turned out, and much to Rolfing’s expectations, Luke Donald’s Europe marched into an early 3-1 lead after the Friday morning foursomes before taking the afternoon fourballs 2.5-1.5 to move into a 5.5-2.5 lead.
Europe then once again won the Saturday morning foursomes 3-1 and the afternoon fourballs 3-1 to march into a commanding seven-point lead (11.5-4.5).
The PGA of America had an absolute shocker at the 2025 Ryder Cup, and it all stemmed from a total lack of planning in advance of golf’s greatest showcase.
[@GolfMagic] https://t.co/0tLGNEPYsU
— Andy Roberts (@AndyRobertsGolf) October 1, 2025
The second day of the Ryder Cup also saw Team Europe, especially Rory McIlroy and his wife, experience horrendous verbal abuse and insults.
USA responded valiantly in the Sunday singles and very nearly pulled off the most miraculous comeback, but if was too little late for the hosts who ended up being defeated by two points (15-13).
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Europe became the first away team to win a Ryder Cup since Medinah in 2012, while Donald became the first captain since Tony Jacklin in 1989 to win two Ryder Cups on the bounce.
Was there a lack of planning on Team USA?
One insider in the Team USA camp has incredibly revealed how the hosts were extremely underprepared in comparison to Team Europe.
Jim Furyk, who acted as one of Bradley’s vice-captains, considers the greens at Bethpage were not correctly up to speed.
But in the eyes of Rolfing, it was a simple failure to pick the right format first that ultimately cost USA.
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“I’ll tell you where I think the Ryder Cup was lost,” Rolfing revealed while appearing on the Straight Facts Homie podcast with Trey Wingo.
“I think it was lost a few months ago when Keegan Bradley failed to look at the format and say you know what, we need to start this thing with fourball and play the foursomes in the afternoon.
“Look what happened in Rome. That format favours the Europeans, there’s no question.
“It’s also a crowd quieting format. It’s not nearly as electric as the fourball and I think he would have been much better off putting out fourball early on both Friday and Saturday and leaving the foursomes for the afternoon.”
Watch Rolfing’s comments here:
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Rolfing played professional golf in 1973 and 1974 after having played college golf at DePauw University in Indiana.
Despite ambitions to make it big in the pro game, Rolfing never managed to qualify for the PGA Tour.
In 1975, he became head professional at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii, home of the Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour.
He set up his own television marketing firm, Rolfing Productions, before then joining NBC Sports golf team as an on-course reporter in 1988.
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Rolfing moved to ESPN / ABC Sports in 1992 but then rejoined NBC in 1998 where he remains to today.
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