Team Europe take a ‘scouting mission’ to Bethpage Black this week ahead of the Ryder Cup, with many of Luke Donald’s side travelling following a strong showing at the BMW PGA Championship.
Eleven of Donald’s 12-man line-up featured at the DP World Tour’s flagship event before flying to New York on Sunday evening, with three of Team Europe finishing inside the top five and others finding form ahead of facing the United States later this month.
Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrell Hatton all finished in tied-fifth, four strokes behind champion and Ryder Cup vice-captain Alex Noren, with Jon Rahm ending in a share of 13th and Rory McIlroy jumping into the top 20 after a strong final day.
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Rory McIlroy signed off ahead of the Ryder Cup in style by firing in two eagles and five birdies to shoot an impressive final-round 65 at Wentworth
Ludvig Åberg also finished tied-20th and Tommy Fleetwood finished on eight under with Shane Lowry, while Justin Rose impressed for the first two days as Robert MacIntyre and Rasmus Hojgaard were the only two not to feature in all four rounds.
Sepp Straka – the only absent member of Donald’s team – will be part of the practice trip, before Team Europe look to regain the trophy against Team USA from September 26-28 – live on Sky Sports.
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Keegan Bradley insisted he ‘doesn’t care’ about how Team Europe are preparing for the Ryder Cup
Early hints on European Ryder Cup pairings?
The draw for the first two rounds of the 2023 BMW PGA Championship provided some of the European pairings for the Ryder Cup later that month, with most partnering at least one player they would later feature alongside in the Rome success.
Team Europe had already made their pre-event trip to Marco Simone GC before Wentworth that year, but the 2025 tee times for the first two rounds still produced some potential European pairings.
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Speaking at Wentworth, Luke Donald shares his thoughts on his potential European pairings ahead of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black
FedExCup champion Fleetwood partnered former world No 1 Rose for the first two days, while Fitzpatrick was grouped alongside Åberg and both impressed alongside each other.
Hovland was alongside Hojgaard, who will be the only rookie in the European team, with Hatton in a pairing with MacIntyre and a marquee threeball consisting of McIlroy, Lowry and Rahm.
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McIlroy, Rahm and Lowry were all part of the European team beaten by a record-breaking margin at Whistling Straits
None of those possible partnerships would come as a huge surprise in New York, with Donald having further opportunities to test out potential options during their practice trip to Bethpage Black.
“You can read into it [pairings] however you want,” Donald said ahead of the BMW PGA Championship. “There will be lots of different groups, different pairings playing together.
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Donald reflects on his six captain’s picks and the challenge Team Europe will face at the 2025 Ryder Cup in New York
“These things are never always set in stone. We always have a plan in place and another plan if things go in a different direction.”
VR headsets used to prepare for Bethpage
Donald hosted a team gathering on Tuesday evening ahead of the BMW PGA, including caddies and partners, where players trialled VR headsets to replicate the noise and atmosphere they could encounter at Bethpage Black.
The level of abuse and noise in the headsets was tailored towards the individual, with the immersive experience giving players an early idea of what they will face on the first tee as they hit their opening tee shots.
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Speaking after his final round at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Jon Rahm explains the use of virtual reality headsets by Team Europe in preparation for a hostile crowd at Bethpage in the Ryder Cup
“It’s better to try to desensitise yourself as much as possible before you get in there,” McIlroy said. “They said, ‘how far to you want this [heckling] to go?’ and I said ‘go as far as you want!'”
“We are doing everything we can to best prepare ourselves for what that’s going to be like, but nothing can really prepare you until you’re actually in that.
“You can wear all the VR headsets you want and do all the different things we’ve been trying to do to get ourselves ready, but once the first tee comes on Friday it’s real and I just have to deal with whatever’s given.”
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Rory McIlroy says he admires Novak Djokovic’s ability to deal with hostility with a pro-American crowd and hints at taking advice from the Serbian after the pair had a conversation
Rahm added: “You get an idea of what it’s going to look like ahead of time. It’s not the same stakes, but I thought it was really fun to just get an idea of what’s going to be.”
Team trip ‘bonding’ for Europe ahead of Bethpage
Europe have been heavily beaten in three of the last four away Ryder Cups, the only exception being the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012, with the team trip part of extensive plans to try and end that run of home dominance.
“It’s a recce,” explained 2014 winning captain Paul McGinley, a strategic advisor to Luke Donald. “We’ve never done this before for an away match en masse, everybody going together.
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Will Donald lead Team Europe to a historic Ryder Cup victory over Team USA at Bethpage Black? Watch this year’s contest live from September 26-28 on Sky Sports Golf
“All 12 players will be there. Luke has been planning this for nearly a year. He’s got some guest speakers, he’s got some ideas that the players are going to see. Everybody will obviously play the golf course too.
“And we’ll do the back-of-house stuff. We’ll get the tailoring done – all the stuff you would normally do in Ryder Cup week, that’s going to be done in the next few days on top of playing the course.
“It’s a real good bonding week. It worked very well going into Italy. It’s taken a lot of effort. A lot of credit to the players, every one of them six months out said absolutely if they make the team, they’ll on the trip.”
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Time apart after Bethpage mission before Ryder Cup
Europe are scheduled to play nine holes on Monday afternoon ahead of playing 18 holes the following day, with the team going into New York City for a ‘fun dinner’ on Tuesday evening before having the rest of the week to prepare as they wish.
“Some people are sticking together up in New York, some people are going to work with their coaches and some people are going home,” Donald explained. “It’s not all 12 together doing the same thing.
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McIlroy ‘loves’ the team Donald has assembled for the Ryder Cup and believes Team Europe ‘have a wonderful opportunity’ at Bethpage Black
“They are together a lot this week [Wentworth]. If you are all together next week and the week after, maybe that’s a little overkill. Some of them will be together playing some courses up in the New York area, but it’s really up to them.
“As long as they are not flying back to Europe and have to deal with jetlag, I don’t really mind what they do. Yeah, they all have good plans in place.”
What’s next?
There will be extended live coverage from every day of Ryder Cup week, starting on Monday September 22, where Team Europe look to regain the trophy with a historic away win in the United States.
Round-the-clock coverage of the opening day’s play will begin with live build-up from 9am on Friday September 26, ahead of full coverage from midday. Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.
