The 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black is set to be a stormer
The Ryder Cup heads to New York and Bethpage Black in 2025 for what is set to an historic week.
Bethpage and the New York area is known for having some of the best, and rowdiest, golf fans in the world and we could also see some fascinating line-ups from the captains to the teams themselves.
So, what can we expect from the 2025 Ryder Cup?
Ryder Cup 2025 – All You Need To Know
Who will the captains be?
Given the Ryder Cup is off to New York it’s going to be something else and the captains will likely reflect the up-and-at’em venue.
For Europe expect to see Ian Poulter take the helm to bookend a sensational Ryder Cup career for the man who looked bound to spend his career giving lessons and selling knitwear from a pro shop.
In the opposite corner we should have Phil Mickelson who, not that it will be required, will spark the New Yorkers into life.
However you view Mickelson’s Ryder Cup record he played in 47 matches and, up until this year, he had played on every team since 1995.
It’s almost very ‘Phil’, in a quirky rather than damning way, that his last contribution was to shake hands and concede a match before his ball had even landed in the water.
Related: Future Ryder Cup Captains – Who will the next five be?
What do we know about the course?
It offers one of the most famous signs in the game ‘WARNING – The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers’ which immediately puts everyone on high alert.
In the 2002 US Open Tiger was the only player to finish under par while Lucas Glover won the 2009 renewal at -4.
At the 2019 PGA it was gun fight between Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson which Koepka edged by two.
It’s less than a hundred years old, it’s a public course and is one of five courses in the Bethpage State Park on Long Island.
It always ranks highly on any list of tough courses, helped by only having two par 5s for the big ones as well as endless lengthy par 4s, and it has had a helping hand from legendary architect AW Tillinghast of Winged Foot (and many others) fame.
What do they say about the course?
There are quotes as long as your arm about how brutal the course can be set up but that won’t be the case in 2025 where birdies and excitement are more of a premium than wedging out sideways.
“Typically in matchplay you want scoring opportunities, so I don’t think it will be a good idea to set it up like it is here, which I don’t think they would,” said Webb Simpson at the 2019 PGA.
“I think they’ll have light rough. I think it needs to be a little shorter for a Ryder Cup, maybe take No. 7 back to a par 5.
”There’s half a chance that Graeme McDowell might be leading Europe (he won’t, he’ll be the captain at Adare Manor) and he sees Bethpage as the usual American open your shoulders and bomb and gauge it round.
“They won’t set it up like this (2019 PGA), this will not be the Ryder Cup set-up – I can guarantee you that. This looks more like Paris National than Hazeltine. It will be less rough, it will just be bombs way.”
Likewise Henrik Stenson who agrees it will be business as usual in terms of home set-up.
“Hazeltine was a long course that was cut down and made wide and with as little rough as possible to try to make it a putting competition because they thought they had the upper hand on the greens.
“When we had thick rough and a narrow course at Le Golf National, that kind of suited the Europeans better because accuracy off the tee and greens in regulation seems to be a little stronger on our end.”
Who might be on the teams?
We’ve talked about the youngsters in the 2023 Ryder Cup version of this so let’s turn our attentions to Patrick Reed and hope that things are a little different for the 2018 Masters champ in 2015.
He’ll still be 35 and he’s won around Bethpage, where the set-up will be similar to a Ryder Cup, in 2016.
Patrick Reed has won around Bethpage Black before
Illness and behaviour aside it’s bizarre that Captain American couldn’t make the 2021 team, let’s hope that this year was just a blip.
For Europe it seems bizarre that Thomas Pieters has missed the last two matches given that he made one of the greatest debuts in an otherwise forgettable match for Europe in 2016.
He should love this set-up and he’ll be 33 and right in the middle, hopefully, of his best years.
Who might not be on the teams?
There’s a goodish chance that Sergio Garcia will be playing in Italy so this might be one Ryder Cup too far for the record-breaking Spaniard?
Likewise Paul Casey, though if he makes it to 2023 and stays in the world’s top 50, he’ll be another great fit for the course.
How can we predict form and longevity over the next four years?
What we can suggest is that Dustin Johnson, at 41, might be done with these matches.
This is all second guessing and he might be the most patriotic American and team player on the planet but his stance over the Olympics and ordinary record suggest otherwise for a player of his extraordinary talents.
This article Ryder Cup 2025 – All You Need To Know appeared first on Golf Monthly.