Ryder Cup 2025: Team USA humbled at Bethpage Black by Europe's stellar play
Twelve years after it was announced that the Ryder Cup would be coming to Bethpage Black, the biennial golf competition between the U.S. and Europe finally arrived Friday.
If the first hole of the day was an omen for Team USA, the wait would be well worth it.
But a dream start — which featured Bryson DeChambeau’s 344-yard first tee shot nearly reaching the green, igniting the raucous American faithful as he and Justin Thomas ultimately birdied and won the first hole of foursomes — quickly flipped upside down.
Team Europe dominated the morning, winning three of the four foursomes (alternate shot) matches, and kept its foot on the gas in the afternoon with victories in two of the four fourball (best ball) matches and a half-point in another.
Europe leads 5 1/2-2 1/2 after the first of three days. In each of the five previous Ryder Cups, the team that led after Friday went on to win.
“Well, we've played 25 percent of the points,” U.S. captain Keegan Bradley said. “We've played the first quarter of a football game or a basketball game. They went out there and they played better than us today. They made more putts.
“But listen, we knew this was going to be difficult. We knew this was going to be tough. We didn't expect to come in here and this not be a difficult week. Our boys are in great spirits. I just spoke to them. They are really excited to get out there tomorrow.”
Under the current 28-point format, only one team has overcome a 5 1/2-2 1/2 deficit (or worse) to win a Ryder Cup; Team USA won 14 1/2-13 1/2 in 1999 after trailing 6-2.
Europe’s best players were at their best. Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood each went 2-0 and Rory McIlroy went 1-0-1. McIlroy is 6-1-1 in his last eight Ryder Cup matches.
The day’s final match — a thriller between McIlroy and Shane Lowry against Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay — ended in a tie after Burns and McIlroy each missed 11-foot, 7-inch birdie putts.
Team USA lost the first three foursomes matches, each of which failed to reach the 16th hole. None of those losses were particularly close. Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick crushed world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Russell Henley, 5-and-3. Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton defeated DeChambeau and Thomas, 4-and-3. McIlroy and Fleetwood held the lead through all 14 holes in a 5-and-4 win over Collin Morikawa and Harris English.
It was the first time that Europe has won each of the first three matches in a Ryder Cup played on American soil. It also was the first time that a team won three matches by at least four holes in the opening session of a Ryder Cup since 1951.
President Donald Trump arrived between sessions, and he accompanied DeChambeau and Ben Griffin to the first tee ahead of their fourball match.
"We just had the President fly over in his Air Force One,” Bradley said between sessions. “So I've got a feeling things are going to turn here."
While the scene of a sitting president at the Ryder Cup’s first tee was surreal, the afternoon did not get any easier for Bradley’s squad.
Scheffler was defeated for the second time, as he and J.J. Spaun lost 3-and-2 to Rahm and Sepp Straka.
Fleetwood and Justin Rose squeaked out a 1-up win over Griffin and DeChambeau. Fleetwood made an 18 1/2-foot birdie to put Europe up two with two holes left, but DeChambeau’s six-foot birdie on the 17th cut Team USA’s deficit to one. Rose’s 9 1/2-foot birdie on the 18th won the match.
The Americans’ most significant moment was Cameron Young and Thomas’ 6-and-5 fourball blowout of Aberg and Rasmus Hojgaard. Young, from Scarborough in Westchester County, played Bethpage Black for the first time since winning the 2017 New York State Open as an amateur. He is the first American to win his first Ryder Cup match by a margin of six or more since Phil Mickelson in 1999.
“It was epic. I'm so proud of Cam,” Thomas said. “It's really hard to put into words how hard it is to play with those kind of nerves, let alone in front of your home crowd. He stepped up, every situation, every time he could. It was really, really impressive to watch, and I'm very proud that he's my partner.”
Team USA’s other win came in the final foursomes match, a 2-up triumph for Xander Schauffele and Cantlay over Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland.
“I'm really proud of them for doing that,” Bradley said. “That kept us in this firmly.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
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