Amid Team Europe’s celebrations following its victory over the U.S. in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, Rory McIlroy wasted no time in turning the page to the 2025 edition of the event set for Bethpage Black in New York.
Sitting in the media center alongside his 11 European teammates, 10 of whom would make the 2025 team, McIlroy issued not just a statement, but a promise, about what would transpire on Long Island in two years.
“I’ve said this for the last six or seven years to anyone that will listen. I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup, and that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage,” McIlroy said.
His statement carried plenty of weight.
Entering 2025, in the 11 Ryder Cups played in the 21st century, Europe has won two away from home, with the most recent coming in 2012, McIlroy’s second-ever Ryder Cup appearance. You have to go all the way back to 1993 to find the last time the U.S. won across the pond.
Rory McIlroy enjoyed himself during the 2025 Ryder Cup, and rightfully so. (Peter Casey-Imagn Images)
In the two-year lead-up to Bethpage, the overwhelming storyline was that the combination of the golf course setup and the relentless New York fans could create such an advantage for the Americans that Europe may stumble out of the gates and fail to regain its footing. Another Ryder Cup won by the home side, the favorite heading into the event, would not be a surprise.
Putting any trust in expectations involving the game of golf, let alone the Ryder Cup, is risky business, and there may be no better representation of that than what unfolded at Bethpage Black over the first two days of the three-day event.
By Friday evening, the sails of the U.S. team were holding on by a thread, and by lunch on Saturday, the ship was already at the bottom of nearby South Oyster Bay.
Rory McIlroy had plenty to celebrate at Bethpage Black at the Ryder Cup. (Brendan Mcdermid-Reuters via Imagn Images)
The Europeans grabbed a 3-1 lead after the Friday morning foursomes before ending the first day of action with a 5.5-2.5 advantage. There was a stretch of about a half-hour or so during Saturday morning’s foursomes when red dominated the leaderboard, but the Europeans continued to make seemingly every putt they looked at, played aggressively against a tentative U.S. side, and snatched an 8.5-3.5 lead after the opening three sessions.
It wasn’t ridiculous or even bold to say that the 2025 Ryder Cup was officially over before a single shot was hit in Saturday afternoon’s four-ball session, because it essentially was.
The U.S. team was lifeless, the Europeans were feeding off the frustrated American crowd, and while the Sunday singles matches brought some serious drama and life into the American side, the Euros’ 11.5-4.5 advantage heading into the final day was simply insurmountable.
To the Americans’ credit, they gave it their best effort to retrieve their sunken ship with impressive early wins on Sunday, but ultimately couldn’t manage to bring it to shore. The U.S. securing five and a half of the first seven points available in Sunday’s singles matches created a movie-like scene, but it ultimately wasn’t the ending the Americans were looking for.
McIlroy and his European teammates had to wait 728 days for the promise he made in Italy to come to fruition in New York on Sunday, but it had to have been well worth it.
Who To Blame For The Poor U.S. Performance At Bethpage
The Americans have now lost nine of the last 12 Ryder Cups and will have to sit with this horrible taste in their mouths, with a 2027 trip to Adare Manor in Ireland in the waiting.
Calling the 2025 Ryder Cup a disaster for the Americans would be disrespectful to the word disaster, given just how poorly things unfolded for the red, white, and blue over the course of the first two days.
It’s fine to applaud the effort of the U.S. side on Sunday, just like it’s more than acceptable to criticize practically everything associated with the American team in the first two days.
Keegan Bradley’s 2025 Ryder Cup did not go to plan. (Paul Childs-Reuters via Imagn Images)
Captain Keegan Bradley will take plenty of heat for some of his pairings decisions, but it’s the PGA of America and the entire U.S. Ryder Cup process and system that needs to be completely flipped upside down.
Bradley and the powers that be at the PGA aren’t the ones hitting the golf shots, however.
The U.S. side ran into a rolling ball of butcher knives in Team Europe, and no combination of the 12 American players would have been able to take down this European squad the way it was operating for the majority of the weekend, but that shouldn’t completely discount the fact that this U.S. team did not show anything resembling a pulse until it was far too late.
Blaming one or even a few American players for the embarrassing performance wouldn’t be fair. This is a team event, and yet again, the Europeans have proven they still have the formula to win, while the Americans have consistently been stuck at the drawing board for more than two decades.
