In the high school matches that I coach, the visiting team has the honor on the first tee. Each pairing decides to keep the honor or return it to the home side. Once returned, the home team must play away. That bit of information is critical to this preview of the 2025 Ryder Cup, and also to the competition itself. As a coach, when we are the visiting team, I insist that we take the honor and keep it for the day. It gives our golfers a jolt of confidence, knowing that my assistant and I have complete, unwavering faith in them.

For the purposes of this preview, we’ll offer the honor to the visiting European side, and we shall assume that they accept it and play away. This week at Bethpage, we are fortunate to have an abundance of statistical information from the Elias Sports Bureau. This firm provides data on every aspect of the competition, the contestants, the coaches, and the course. Without it, we would have little of the critical backstory of holes and golfers. We are grateful to them for their work. The PGA of America provides pool reporter notes and stock photography to support all media in the telling of their tales. Photos capture moments, video captures sequences, and words build stories. With fortune, we will choose the right words this week, and capture the essence of a Ryder Cup competition, near the stages of the world’s biggest stage. Please take your seat and prepare for the show.

Five things that we know: Team Europe

1.  The “U” in eUrope stands for “United”

It is the secret weapon that Team Europe used in 1983 to begin its ascent to the favorite role every two years. This is not to say that Team USA does not understand the noun, just that the European side uses more languages to define and explain it. Unity is the essence of each pairing on days one and two, and the glue that binds twelve golfers through the Sunday singles matches. 2025 will test this unity again, as two golfers from the LIV series will feature in the visiting team’s fortunes. Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm join ten more of Europe’s finest golfers, albeit without the weekly camaraderie found on the DP World and PGA Tours. Will it matter? We won’t know publicly, but there may be signs…

2. Who’s zooming who?

Vibing off the first point, the Europeans could honestly pair anyone with anyone, then completely flip the script on opening day. The Wednesday practice pairings for the visiting side read as follows:

EUROPE (Tee #10)
9:30 a.m. approx.
Tyrrell HATTON, Shane LOWRY, Jon RAHM, Sepp STRAKA

9:45 a.m. approx
Matt FITZPATRICK, Viktor HOVLAND, Robert MACINTYRE, Rory MCILROY

10:00 a.m. approx
Ludvig ÅBERG, Tommy FLEETWOOD, Rasmus HØJGAARD, Justin ROSE

Team Europe might have determined that the brothers LIV (Hatton and Rahm) already have a connection, or it might pair the mercurial yet humorous Hatton with the calming presence of Shane Lowry. Who knows? Group two suggests that team leader Rory has narrowed his partners down to three. My guess would be Scotland’s Bobby Mac, but I could also see him with Vik and Matt. With group three, either the Englishmen will row together, or each will serve as a mentor for Ludvig and Rasmus. Remember that Åberg and Hovland went 2 and 1 as partners in Rome 2023, including a 9 & 7 shellacking of a stunned USA pairing…anything is possible, in the mind of Captain Luke Donald.

3. Speaking of captains…

They don’t come much better than Luke Donald. The Englishman was a fill-in for Side Europe in 2023, after Henrik Stenson departed for LIV, then was inexplicably stunned when relieved of his European captaincy. That’s a laugh for another day. Donald meshed flawlessly with the European way. Donald played his way onto four Ryder Cup squads from 2004 to 2012, so his experience with home and away matches was established before Stenson bolted and Donald rose. In Rome, Luke Donald skippered his team to a five-point win over the visiting USA dozen, proving his mettle as a leader.

Incredibly, the only new player on the 2025 side for Donald is Rasmus Hojgaard, who happens to be the twin brother of the player (Nicolai) that he replaced. All signs pointed to an easy run-up for Donald, so his footprint as captain will be determined by his effectiveness as captain.

4. About that golf course

There was a time, so long ago are a verse from a Ruben Blades song, entitled The calm before the storm. There was a time, not so long ago, when course set-up didn’t just matter; it impacted the other team. This used to happen at The Belfry on the regular, and it happened a bit at Valhalla with Azinger. This is 2025, friends, and if you are one of the top twelve golfers in your nation/region, you should be able to adapt to any playing conditions. For goodness’ sake, touring golfers move from links golf to bent grass to bermuda grass, in the same manner that tennis players ease from clay to hard to grass. The Europeans will have a week, if they put the ball on the short grass, as often as possible.

5. One key to victory

It’s the LIV guys. Rahm and Hatton can be two of the world’s most exciting and talented golfers. If they have their games, they will serve as the rising tide that lifts all boats. If either or both struggle, 10 will not be enough to overcome two.

Five things that we know: Team USA

1.  One outlier to define them all?

From all traces, Bryson DeChambeau has made it his life goal to be larger than life. From his dalliance with massive musculature to his desired build-out of his YouTube channel, the Texan nee Californian has attempted to cultivate all sides and elements of his self, his game, and his legacy. With an ever-changing set of goals, the chameleonic nature of DeChambeau collides a bit with his eleven teammates. Toss in his departure for LIV, and his place as the outlier among 11 PGA Tour stalwarts, and the DeChambeau factor stands out as more than just a curiosity. Without the camaraderie born of weekly interaction, DeChambeau might be that guy, the guy who hits golf balls over roofs, tries to break 50 from forward tees with myriad partners, and every so often, wins a U.S. Open. They Might Be Giants was a 1980s band; DeChambeau might be a giant, and he might be something else.

2. Who’s zooming who, part two?

Wednesday practice rounds set up in the following manner:

USA (Tee #1)
9:45a.m. approx.
Bryson DECHAMBEAU, Ben GRIFFIN, Justin THOMAS, Cameron YOUNG

10:00 a.m. approx.
Harris ENGLISH, Russell HENLEY, Scottie SCHEFFLER, JJ SPAUN

10:15 a.m. approx
Sam BURNS, Patrick CANTLAY, Collin MORIKAWA, Xander SCHAUFFELE

Ever since Paul Azinger established his pod system in 2008, leading to a Team USA victory at Valhalla, Team USA has shown a bit of its hand with its practice round pairings. From appearances, it seems that Cameron Young and Bryson DeChambeau, along with Ben Griffin and Justin Thomas, will partner for at least one match on Friday. The same can be said of the other groupings, although the second one will certainly offer more options than the first. In pairing three, Patrick Cantley and Xander Schauffele have built a legacy of success, a succegacy, if you will. Will it continue in 2025? It needs to, if the home side is to have a chance. Morikawa and Burns just might be the MoliWood of 2025, the unexpected, yet famously-successful, European duo of 2018. Team USA needs one of those, two.

3. Speaking of captains

Back in 2013, the PGA of America announced that Bethpage State Park would host the 2024 (now 2025) Ryder Cup on its Black course. Instantly, Phil Mickelson was nominated by all of USA golf fandom as the probable USA captain. After all, NYC loved Phil, given his bravado, his swashbuckling play, and his connection with the galleries. Unfortunately for Phil, he joined LIV and burned many bridges on his way out of the PGA Tour. Next came Tiger Woods, and as the injuries mounted, the likelihood of his making the team lessened. And yet, the great one said no, thank you to the opportunity to lead Team USA. In July of 2024, Keegan Hansen Bradley was introduced as the captain of Team USA, to the surprise of everyone. Having been left off a pair of Ryder Cup sides over the years, Bradley was not seen as an insider with the Ryder Cup regime. Nevertheless, his father is a PGA professional, and Bradley ached to make one more team as a competitor. Despite having played his way into the top ten through qualifying, Bradley elected not to select the man in the mirror for his side.

Bradley is New England-born but educated in NYC. He attended St. John’s University in Queens, where he competed for the golf team. He is a grinder, a survivor, and an everyman. He is precisely the captain that Luke Donald did not want to face, because he is easy to support. Bradley is in his element, and he might be the difference this week if the proper words come.

4. About that golf course

In the ultimate case of irony, Paul Azinger, the one-time Captain America, went on a rager about how BPB is ill-suited to the American game, and how Team USA won’t love the course. Speaking as one getting long in the tooth, sometimes we say things before we fully process them. I don’t suspect that Captain Keegan (aka the current Captain America) will have done less than identify how to make the course home for the Americans.

5. One key to victory

This guy. Cameron Young won’t be the guy who shouts from the mountain. He is Team USA’s Roy Kent. He looks like he could growl at any moment; he needs to play as if he is angry at the turf, and he just might carry along a squad and a nation this weekend. It’s a lot to put on a kid, even if he is 27 and a husband and father. Something tells me that Young Cameron wouldn’t have it any other way.