The Battle at Bethpage for The Ryder Cup
- Daniel Ward-Murphy
- Sep 26
- 3 min read
The Course and Weather
You can expect slanted, narrow fairways, thick rough, small greens, and a steady diet of bruising par-4s. There is weather around but aside from a few showers to make the rough tougher, it shouldn't be too bad - the wind isn't that high and most of the worst weather will be history before the first ball is struck.
The Format and Timings
The US have chosen foursomes in the morning and fourballs in the afternoon. On Friday and Saturday the first tea shot will be hit at 7.10am ET on both days, which is 12.10pm in the UK.
The High-Level Tactics
It's a very tough test to string together a good round at Bethpage Black. The shorthand tactics will be to pair your elite drivers and iron players in alternate shot foursomes and let the streaky putters/big hitters loose in fourball.
The Teams
USA
Scottie Scheffler
Patrick Cantlay
JJ Spaun
Xander Schauffele
Sam Burns
Cameron Young
Ben Griffin
Collin Morikawa
Justin Thomas
Harris English
Bryson DeChambeau
Russell Henley
Europe
Rory McIlroy
Robert MacIntyre
Tommy Fleetwood
Justin Rose
Rasmus Højgaard
Tyrrell Hatton
Shane Lowry
Jon Rahm
Sepp Straka
Viktor Hovland
Ludvig Åberg
Matt Fitzpatrick
Which Players will be key?
Getting off to a good start is somewhat of a cliche in golf but I do think it will be very important here, for two reasons.
The pressure will certainly ramp up for the team that falls behind, and making up points will not be easy for either side due to the strength of each teams top 6-8 players.
We start with the Foursomes, which will certainly 'show up' and magnify the importance of which players are either out of form or playing inspired golf.
The best player in the world is undoubtedly Scottie Scheffler. It will be a big surprise if he can't take home 3+ points for Team USA. It may be pivotal that a number of the US Team are in form coming into this. Cantlay and Henley are red hot, Burns and Young are playing really well, others look sharp too. On the European side, there are some in decent form, its just not comparable to where the US form is though.
Where will the Ryder Cup be won and lost?
First of all, Donald is a strength for the Europeans. He won't hit a golf ball, so his influence will have limits but Europe will not lose because of Donald. He is an immense captain from preparation to strategy. We will see how Bradley does - I think he will do OK and he has the players, but he won't be the better captain.
If everyone plays to form, I think the US win by 2-5 points. If Europe are to win, I think one or two of the US rookies will have to struggle and perhaps there is some hope that Morikawa and Thomas may struggle to recapture their best form. I think the foursomes will be pivotal, as it will highlight those out of form in particular.
I expect McIlroy, Fleetwood and Hatton to all do well. For the US, Scheffler, Cantlay and Bryson to pick up a fair few points. I think the cup will be won and lost in how the next tier of stars do. MacIntrye, Hovland, Rahm may be key - at least two of those will have to get the better of their opponents you would think - and either the US rookies struggle, or players like Thomas and Morikawa play badly. I would like to see Rose given the opportunity to play at least 3 matches, as I think he will go well, but there will be shock results as form and to a degree personal and team momentum plays such a part. The US will be confident though in both their rookies (with home support) and the form some of their players are in. Simply put, if McIlroy and Fleetwood both have off weeks, there is little to no hope. The big players for Europe need to win most of their matches, and some of those least expected to win will have to fire.
There are too many permutations and shocks around the corner to be sure of much. What I see as certain is that Donald will captain well, there will be no runaway winner, Scheffler won't bottle anything and there will be 2-4 players that just turn up out of form and surrender points. Who those are may be key. Enjoy!
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