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Less than 24 hours remain until the Americans and the Europeans let their first tee shots fly at the 2025 Ryder Cup. The Athletic is live on the ground at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, and we’ll be in touch daily throughout the tournament.
Tomorrow’s tee times are below. But today, we’re previewing what might be the most highly anticipated Ryder Cup ever on U.S. soil. Let’s dive right in:
The X-Factor: ‘Captain’s nightmare’ or the ultimate weapon?
The player capturing the most early attention so far this week is not world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. It is not career Grand Slam champion Rory McIlroy either. No — it’s part-time YouTuber and two-time U.S. Open champion, Bryson DeChambeau.
What’s the big deal about DeChambeau and the Ryder Cup? From building 3D-printed golf clubs to filming “Break 50” challenges with Tom Brady and interacting with fans during major championships, DeChambeau charts his own course.
He also joined LIV Golf in 2022 — the only player on the U.S. Ryder Cup team from the PGA Tour’s rival league — and hasn’t appeared on a Ryder Cup team since Whistling Straits in 2021.
So naturally, the chatter has been amping up: How will DeChambeau jell with the rest of the roster? Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee even went as far as to say that DeChambeau is a “captain’s nightmare,” and an “odd duck” in the team room. But U.S. captain Keegan Bradley and DeChambeau’s teammates have insisted he’s just the opposite.
Two weeks ago, the majority of the U.S. team entered the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship in Napa Valley to add competitive reps before the Ryder Cup. But DeChambeau, a LIV golfer, was not allowed to play. He flew out anyway for a team dinner.
Some quotes on DeChambeau from early-week press conferences:
Bradley: “We have a lot of calm, mellow guys, so we need the energy from Bryson.”
Scheffler: “He brings a lot of energy, the people love him … I’m excited to kind of unleash him this week.”
Xander Schauffele: “This is his arena. If he views himself as a gladiator golfer, this is as good as it gets.”
I walked a few holes with the practice round group of Cameron Young, Justin Thomas, Ben Griffin and DeChambeau yesterday, and it is clear DeChambeau’s energy transfers to the others. Coming out of the tunnel at 9:45 a.m., DeChambeau grabbed his driver and then turned around toward the grandstand, knowing he’d send the crowd into a frenzy. It worked, and he teed off to the song “Nowhere to Run” by Martha and the Vandellas — a tune I’m told Bradley specifically requested.
The other question: Who will partner up with DeChambeau? A few options have begun to emerge:
The rookie Griffin, who seems to be a solid personality match for DeChambeau, with similar showman vibes.
Young and DeChambeau play the same ProV1 prototype golf ball, which is an important factor in foursomes (alternate shot).
But Justin Thomas has emerged as perhaps a wildcard partner for DeChambeau. My colleague Brody Miller saw the two simulating alternate shot by hitting each other’s balls yesterday. Then, after their round, DeChambeau and Thomas went back to the first tee together to experiment with driving the green.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility for DeChambeau to hit the first shot of the Ryder Cup and reach the green. His caddie, Greg Bodine, told me yesterday it would take a 360-yard drive and a helping wind direction, but DeChambeau has the power to take a direct line at the pin.
Now that is how you unleash DeChambeau as the weapon he is: Capture the momentum early and let him do his thing.
Team Europe: The advantage of experience
Let’s face it: The last five Ryder Cups have not exactly been cinema down the stretch. But we really are due for another Brookline or Medinah — the return of the Ryder Cup “golden hour” — here at Bethpage Black.
Winning an away Ryder Cup might not be easy, but Team Europe is uniquely positioned to do just that. Justin Ray, The Athletic’s resident stats guru, explains:
💬 The 2025 European team is the fifth team since this Ryder Cup format was adopted in 1979 to feature one or no rookies. Each of the previous four either won or retained the Ryder Cup.
Rookies are historically the weakest links at road Ryder Cups. They perform significantly worse — so much so that Luke Donald and the European team specifically crafted their qualification system to favor a more experienced team.
The level of experience built into the European squad will be a major factor. All of these players have felt the Ryder Cup pressure. Whether home or away, this competition just pulses through the veins differently. When you add in the fact that Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood are enjoying immense popularity in the U.S. right now, this away team is simply not like the others.
But winning an away Ryder Cup is still a tall task. Justin also points out that since 1997, the number of players to complete the career Grand Slam (two, McIlroy and Tiger Woods) is the same as the number of away Ryder Cups won (Europe, in 2004 and 2012).
The event is growing by the year, which means the home-crowd advantage is only becoming more severe. But does the makeup of Team Europe play a factor in how close it can get to proving the probabilities wrong? Perhaps so.
Justin has more numbers and notes on this year’s Ryder Cup in his full statistical breakdown.
The Links
📊 Curious how Team USA and Team Europe stack up against each other? We ranked every player in the field at the 2025 Ryder Cup.
🦅 Keegan Bradley went from a “loner” to Ryder Cup captain. Brody Miller dives into the character arc of the American leader.
🔊 The arena at Bethpage Black should mimic the old-school vibe of a Yankees-Red Sox series in the Bronx. Ian O’Connor explains why New York’s Ryder Cup could be the loudest golf tournament ever.
⛳ A guide to Bethpage Black: perhaps golf’s toughest test.
👬 How do individual golfers become a Ryder Cup team? Former Team USA captain Paul Azinger shared his unique solution.
The Money Beef: Should Europe take a beat on money narrative?
This is not new. The pay-for-play question at the Ryder Cup began in 1999. That’s when American players began to receive $200,000 for playing in the tournament, a sum that would be donated to a charity of their choice.
But the story resurfaced in 2023, when rumors swirled regarding Patrick Cantlay’s hatless-ness and allegations he was involved in a silent protest about the lack of player compensation. This year, the Americans are receiving a newly increased amount of $300,000 for charity, with an additional $200,000 “stipend.” Keegan Bradley and others, including Cantlay, said they will be donating the full $500,000.
The Europeans, however, will not let it go.
Luke Donald addressed an audience of thousands yesterday in the Ryder Cup opening ceremony. The jabs, though hidden in plain sight, came in full force.
“We are fueled by something money cannot buy: Purpose, brotherhood and a responsibility to honor those who came before us, while inspiring those whose time is yet to come,” Donald said.
Earlier this week, Donald also insinuated the New York fans could turn on the Americans if they’re not performing, especially with the knowledge that they’re receiving the stipend, win or lose.
Here’s the thing: The organizations behind Europe and the U.S. each profit from the Ryder Cup differently, so they have different options when it comes to distributing those funds. The PGA of America can afford to give $6 million to the players because it receives a very lucrative cut of the massive TV deal with NBC. The DP World Tour, on the other hand, needs to reinvest the cash it generates from the Ryder Cup into its events to stay profitable as a tour.
The Europeans say they’re fueled by something “money can’t buy,” but they don’t really have the option for money to be funneled to them in the first place. So, is it silly that the Americans found a way to make even more money from an event that was never supposed to be about the money? Yes. Is it also silly that the Europeans won’t let the narrative go, despite the mismatched financial circumstances between teams? Also yes.
Tee Times
We have foursomes and fourball on deck for tomorrow’s opening two sessions of the Ryder Cup. (More on how those formats work here.)
Stay tuned to our live blog at 4 p.m. ET today for the announcement of tomorrow’s pairings. For now, here’s tomorrow’s schedule (all times in ET):
⛳ Foursomes:
Match 1 – 7:10 a.m.
Match 2 – 7:26 a.m.
Match 3 – 7:42 a.m.
Match 4 – 7:58 a.m.
⛳ Fourball:
Match 1 – 12:25 p.m.
Match 2 – 12:41 p.m.
Match 3 – 12:57 p.m.
Match 4 – 1:13 p.m.
Shot of the Day
This section will be reserved for a golf shot of the day during the tournament this weekend, but for now …
Here’s an adorable shot of Tommy Fleetwood accompanied by his son, Frankie, inside the ropes during the practice rounds:
Gabby Herzig / The Athletic
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(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
