RYDER CUP ’25: The recipe for what Justin Thomas calls the ‘biggest golf event ever’

Take the loudest and rowdiest event in golf. Put it on a public golf course in New York notorious for its proud and raucous crowds. Now fill it with 50,000 flag-waving fans at Bethpage Black. It’s a recipe that has made this Ryder Cup the most anticipated of them all.

“I think hands down it’ll be the biggest golf event ever,” said Justin Thomas, the most experienced American on his team despite playing in only his fourth Ryder Cup.

If all that isn’t enough, President Donald Trump wasn’t about to miss out on the ultimate “us versus them” sporting event. He plans to be there for the opening session on Sept. 26 when the Americans try to win back the Ryder Cup.

The passion is unlike any other golf tournament, all for a 17-inch gold trophy donated by an English seed merchant (Samuel Ryder) for a friendly golf competition between teams on both sides of the Atlantic in 1927. After nearly a century, it doesn’t seem all that friendly at times.

“When you’re a part of it, it really, it changes you forever, it really does,” said U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who has gone 11 years since he last was part of it.

Bradley never unpacked his suitcase from his Ryder Cup debut in 2012. It’s still in his garage at his Florida home. He has pledged not to open and remove whatever is in there — in whatever condition it’s in — until he’s part of a winning team.

Bradley nearly took matters into his own hands, on the verge of becoming the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since 1963 until he decided against it. All he wants is the trophy.

Luke Donald returns as captain, trying to join Tony Jacklin as the only European skippers to win back-to-back and fully aware it might not be as easy as it looked in Rome. He returns the same 12 faces, one different player — Rasmus Hojgaard replaces his identical twin Nicolai.

“Even though we have a lot of continuity, this is a different animal,” Donald said. “We understand how difficult it is.”

The U.S. team made sure to avoid the mistake from two years ago, when all but two of its players went a month before the Ryder Cup without playing. They practiced together and played together at the Procore Championship last week in California, and retreated to a mansion among the vineyards as their private hang.

That got the attention of Justin Rose. He was doing a Q&A at his Rose Ladies Open in England earlier this month when he needled the Americans trying to bond as a team.

“I think America have tried too hard to become a team, whereas Europe is a bit more natural and organic, and I think it comes from deeper roots in a way,” Rose said.

Europe had all but one of its 12 players at the BMW PGA Championship in England. They met one night and received virtual reality equipment that would allow them to experience some of the noise and heckling that might occur at Bethpage Black.

“I think we’ve been talking about the Ryder Cup in Bethpage probably for 10 years, the anticipation of it, what it’s going to be like, how intense it’s going to be,” Rose said. “New Yorkers are crazy, and I think they become sort of caricatures of themselves. I think they feel like they have to live up to that reputation. So, fully expect absolute chaos out there.”

That’s one reason winning a Ryder Cup on the road hasn’t been easy the last decade.

The Americans won on home soil four years ago with their biggest shellacking ever against Europe, 19-9 at Whistling Straits, which prompted Jordan Spieth to say, “If we play like we did this week, the score will look the same over there.”

But it didn’t.

Europe won for the seventh straight time at home in 2023 by a five-point margin. That prompted Rory McIlroy to say winning a Ryder Cup away from home is the biggest accomplishment in golf.

“And that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage,” McIlroy declared during the winner’s news conference at Marco Simone.

That will be determined over three days of nonstop action — four matches of foursomes and fourballs on Friday and Saturday, followed by 12 singles matches on Sunday.

Europe needs only 14 points to retain the cup.

“We’ve got three days to see who’s the better team, and it’s going to be a good battle,” said Scottie Scheffler, who turned that week of bonding into his sixth PGA Tour title this year.

He knows about the emotions. Scheffler had tears in his eyes two years ago after he and Brooks Koepka were on the losing end of the shortest 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history. Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg needed only 11 holes to beat them in foursomes, 9 and 7.

Emotions also spilled into the parking lot in Rome. Patrick Cantlay answered 20,000 hat-waving fans in Italy with birdies on the last three holes to win a fourballs match. McIlroy, on the losing end of that one, felt disrespected by caddie Joe LaCava and was seen shouting at Jim “Bones” Mackay of NBC Sports while being restrained by Shane Lowry.

Hard feelings have become part of the Ryder Cup in recent years, and the notorious Bethpage crowd could take that to a new level. At least Europe will have it share of fans, unlike the last time in the United States when travel restrictions from COVID-19 made it a one-sided gallery.

But they are expecting the worst.

Bethpage Black, along with its championship pedigree, belongs to the people. It is the first course owned by taxpayers to host a U.S. Open in 2002. New Yorkers sleep in their cars overnight in the parking lot to wait in line to play.

It cost $70 to play the Black during the week for New York residents, double that for everyone else, though $140 is still a bargain for a course that has held two U.S. Opens, a PGA Championship and now the Ryder Cup.

But there is a pride that comes through from outside the ropes as New Yorkers watch the world’s best play their golf course, and they aren’t shy about letting players know what they think. As Justin Leonard said ahead of the 2009 U.S. Open, “It’s like you’ve got 50,000 owners out there, all wanting to see you play on their course.”

It’s different for a Ryder Cup. It’s not about who has the lowest score among 156 players like at a major. It’s the Americans or Europeans.

“Long Island fans are the best. They are so passionate, and I’m just glad I’m on the team they’re rooting for,” Thomas said. “But they expect a lot from us, so we expect to give it to them.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf