Thursday At The 45th Ryder Cup
Captains Bradley and Donald announce Friday's foursomes matches. Plus, Quotables, Larry Nelson, Course Diaries, and Weather.
Rain arrived at Bethpage Black but never at the rate feared. The daytime reprieve turned Thursday’s final day of practice into a more productive one than expected, even if a ceremony-free day left everyone too much time to ponder what time they’re waking up to witness Friday’s 7:10 a.m. ET opener. Thursday also…
Gave players and their vaunted pit crews enough time to fine-tune their chassis while allowing Bryson DeChambeau to close the range for fans at a time he otherwise would have been in his Opening Ceremony getup.
Offered fans enough time to buy gobsmackingly overpriced merch before forking over another $20 just to bag-check their haul for a few hours.
Gave more time for everyone to wonder how long it will take 55,000 people to pass through Friday’s TSA-level security measures created by the TBD-arrival time of President Donald Trump.
When the traditional Thursday opening ceremony was moved up to Wednesday, the Captains were left to unveil Friday morning foursomes matches in a clunkily produced appearance on Golf Channel’s Live From. Somewhere, the Presidents Cup’s “snake draft” beemed.
Here is Friday’s opening session, as announced by Captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald:
“We looked at our data, the guy, the golf balls,” said American Captain Bradley. “We’ve had this lineup set up for a long time.”
The decision to open with the first-time duo of DeChambeau and Thomas caught some by surprise.
“What better two guys to lead our team out tomorrow than Justin and Bryson?” Bradley said. “When I would go out on these first tees, I would be very nervous and didn’t know what to expect. I see Bryson and I can see him walking out there just relishing the moment and relishing the chance to get up there and hit that shot.”
Captain Donald will Rahm and Hatton out in foursomes and why wouldn’t he? The duo went undefeated during two alternate shot matches two years ago in Rome. A more curious European pairing may be the second-out team of captain’s picks Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick. Donald cited their contrasting playing styles.
“I think in foursomes, I like that, Donald said. “I like a little bit of a difference in games to match the golf course, and these two really do match that golf course well.”
They are also two of the fastest in the world going against two averaged-paced (at best) players in Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley.
Each Captain declared confidence in Friday morning’s lineup card.
“We are really happy we’ve gotten to this point,” Bradley said. “Feels like we were waiting a year and a half for this moment, and now that we see the matchups on paper, and know that we are going to go out tomorrow and play, it’s an incredible feeling.”
Donald believes he’s sending out his “strongest” foursomes lineup to go against the USA.
“We want to get off to a good start like we did in Rome, but we also understand the challenge ahead of us. This is a lineup that we are very, very comfortable with.”
Thursday’s light rain took some bite out of Bethpage Black and, combined with an expected downpour overnight, will make winning pars a rarity. Either way, the United States will need 14.5 points to retake the Cup lost in Rome. Nothing eludes this scribbler.
A few other things to remember about foursomes play heading into Friday morning. Courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau:
The home team has won the foursomes sessions in each of the last nine Ryder Cups.
Since 2006 the home team has a record of 45-16-11 in foursomes: Team Europe is 26-7-7 at home; and Team USA is 19-9-4 at home over this time.
When Europe took seven out of a possible eight points during foursomes play in 2023, it was the most lopsided advantage for either team under that format in any Ryder Cup since 1975.
Quotable
A driving theme in this week’s player press conferences: uber discipline and strength to say absolutely nothing a headline writer can weave into a controversy. Yawn!
Nonetheless, nuggets from Thursday’s extensive press conference schedule:
Bryson DeChambeau on Rory McIlroy. “I have the ultimate respect for Rory as a player. It’s going to be fun to go up against him this week, whether it’s against him directly or through other players. I think it going to be a fun challenge this week. Would I love to go up against him? Yeah. It would be a lot of fun.”
Rory McIlroy on if he has any messages to send to the USA team. “I promised Luke I would only talk about the European Team today. I’m going to stick to it. No, look, I think, again, it’s so easy to play into narratives this week and to get swept up in this whole rivalries and Ryder Cup and whatever it is. All I want to do is go and try and put blue points on the board. I don’t care who it’s against. If I come up against Bryson at some point, I think that’s great.”
DeChambeau on Brandel Chamblee’s claim that his YouTube numbers are dubious and propped up by Saudi Arabian-funded bots. “Any time that people can throw stuff at me like that, I enjoy it. I appreciate it. I think it’s good for ultimately the game of golf because it starts to spur conversation on. Ultimately, on YouTube, you have to be verified to be able to subscribe and whatnot. So I don’t think it’s really that honest or true. But it is what it is. I mean, any time you can say something like that and create more buzz for the game of golf, it’s great.”
Harris English on spending time with DeChambeau this week. “When we are at the Opening Ceremony standing around getting ready to go, he was taking me through all the stuff he does, and that’s kind of a different world that I’m not used to seeing. I do Twitter and I follow a lot of Georgia Football stuff and Jaguar stuff. I’m not in the world he’s in, but it was cool to get that insight of what he does and his plan of growing the game as much as possible and trying to relate to kids and bringing kids to the game of golf, which I think is really cool.”
Sam Burns on the $500,000 stipend players are receiving this week. “My personal opinion is I’m extremely grateful that the PGA of America is doing this. I live in a small town in Louisiana, and that amount of money in that community for those charities is going to go a long ways.”
Shane Lowry on showing passion after a key shot. “It is important not to give the crowd too much to cling on to but it’s also important to be yourself. You know, not try to be anyone different. I think what got me here is being myself, and I think I have to be the best version of myself this week.”
Lowry on the European team. “Honestly, the last two weeks, I’ve never laughed so much in my whole life. We’ve just had a great time.”
Sepp Straka on opening tee shot nerves. “I remember I was playing with Shane in the morning session in Rome, and I duck-hooked the first tee shot in the left hay, and he came up to me and said, “Well, at least now that’s over with. Now we can go play some golf.”
Viktor Hovland on strategy at Bethpage.“The fairways aren’t super wide. They are not super narrow either but the rough is so thin that even if you spray a shot off the tee, you can’t really go, okay, he’s way out of position, let’s just play conservative here. Because if you get lucky and have a nice lie, you can easily make birdie from out of position here. So I think aggressiveness is probably going to be a good strategy.”
Matt Fitzpatrick on why his parents are not coming to the matches after being treated poorly by fans at Whistling Straits. “They didn’t have a great experience in Whistling Straits. That’s not like a lie or anything or making anything up. But the other thing is, both my parents are playing next week in the Dunhill. They also didn’t really want to ruin that experience, as well.”
Ben Griffin on what makes the Ryder Cup different. “You’re playing…five tournaments within this one tournament every single round you’re playing—if you’re playing five matches. Mentally, you’re going through your rounds differently than you would in any other tour events. Because of that, emotions are going to come up more often. That’s why everyone loves the Ryder Cup.”
Jon Rahm on the first tee shot at Bethpage and hitting something besides driver. “I don’t think I’ve thought of a different club to be fair. I don’t know if I can get to the green, though. It’s -- I would need a little bit of firmness on the fairways for me to maybe reach. I don’t think that I have the carry that maybe Bryson or Cam Young or Rory may have.”
Rahm on a practice round heckler. “I don’t know exactly what he said, but I think what he said was -- what did he say? He either said, ‘Hey, Rahm, where is the Ozempic?’ Or ‘When’s Ozempic?’ Something ‘Ozempic.’ I just don’t know what word exactly. It was funny.”
Robert MacIntyre on if he was excited about Donald Trump’s visit on Friday. “I just play golf. I don’t -- politics and stuff is out of my -- I mean, I’m not bright enough, for one, to be worrying about politics. I’m worrying more about what goes on this week on the golf course. Yeah, as a European, we’ve got a job to do, and yeah, try and compete as hard as we can and hopefully win the Ryder Cup.”
Tyrrell Hatton on Rory’s gravitas after winning the Masters. “Well, I’m certainly jealous of the gray hair (laughter). I mean, if you look at my picture of my four Ryder Cups, it’s got gradually less. If I’m lucky to make five, I think it will be skin. Rors is a huge part of the team. Everyone has a massive amount of respect for him, an incredible player, and certainly wants to do his best for Europe.”
Larry Nelson Gets His Due
One of only five players to go 5-0-0 in a Ryder Cup (1979), Nelson was passed over as a Captain and has been ignored by multiple PGA of America regimes. This, despite being the consummate gentleman, multiple major winner, and holder of one of golf’s greatest stories: he was introduced to golf by a fellow soldier during a three-month deployment in Vietnam, took up the game on his return, and won two majors along with ten PGA Tour titles.
Course Diaries
The uphill par-5 fourth bends most norms for a purportedly “great hole” and yet is pretty universally respected for reasons beyond its Instagram sensibilities. Here are two looks at a key early hole in this year’s matches, starting with the landing area:
