[PHOTO: Maddie Meyer/PGA of America]
What Justin Rose did on the greens at the 2025 Ryder Cup was truly incredible. I’d say it was unbelievable, but that wouldn’t be true, because actually it’s entirely believable. Rose basically did exactly the same thing two years ago. In three rounds at the 2023 Ryder Cup, Justin Rose gained 4.95 in SG: Putting – the best of any player on either side. It was a historic performance on the greens.
RELATED: Justin Rose’s strong form makes him more than Europe’s sage mentor
In one round at the 2025 Ryder Cup – not even, actually, because Rose needed only 16 holes with Tommy Fleetwood to win their Saturday fourball match – Rose gained 4.56 SG: Putting. That’s 92 percent of his total from Rome. The next closest player on the day was Shane Lowry, who gained just more than a stroke. Rose took a step back on Sunday, but for the second time in as many Ryder Cups, the Englishman put on the proverbial putting clinic.
Walking it in 🤯#TeamEurope | #OurTimeOurPlace pic.twitter.com/FUGOGqK9qV
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 27, 2025
It can be hard to put numbers like this in context, so here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re a 10 handicapper, practising putting at your home course when Rose rolls up and challenges you to an 18-hole putting contest. The way Rose putted at Bethpage on Saturday, based on his strokes-gained statistics, he would have to add about 10 feet extra onto every putt to make it fair. So if you tap in a two-footer, he’d have to make a 12-footer to tie.
And if that doesn’t do it for you, then just take my word for it: it’s really good.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about it all, though, is the context: Rose never used to be a good putter. From 2011 to 2018 his average putting rank on the PGA Tour was 117th. He sniffed the top 20 the next season, and he’s been elite ever since.
TOMMY & ROSEY ARE 11 UNDER THRU 14 🔥#TeamEurope | #OurTimeOurPlace pic.twitter.com/5xSwLYqZJl
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 27, 2025
“I think you can be a good putter when you know nothing and putt purely on instinct, and I think you can be a good putter when you know a lot about what you’re doing,” Rose told me once. “I found that when I knew just a little bit about what I was doing, I got worse. I didn’t understand enough. I had to go on a journey to truly become a master at the craft.”
Rose gravitated towards a series of specific solutions: he changed his grip to a claw to stabilise his wrist movement. He dialled in his equipment. He divided his practice into intense technical work done indoors, then intense green-reading-and-speed work outdoors. Rose has learned what works for him.
As for how he putts so well in Ryder Cups? It remains one of the last unknowns in his putting.
“I wish I knew, to be honest. I think it’s the power of this,” he said, pointing to his teammates. “The ability to lock in a little bit more. The ability to want it more. I don’t know, is the answer to your question. The badge and the boys. It makes you want it a little more.”
It’s what he does 🌹#TeamEurope | #OurTimeOurPlace pic.twitter.com/uQH096mn5A
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 27, 2025
Needless to say, Rose’s presence, not to mention his 2-1 record, was a key part of Europe’s 15-13 ‘away’ win. And his thoughts on putting are one of several things I learned this week from the pros competing in the Ryder Cup. Here’s a look at seven others:
1. Break overwhelming things into smaller pieces
Momentum is an intangible, but undeniable, part of the Ryder Cup. There are times when it becomes all encompassing. The task of winning a hole, or even halving one, can go in an instant from feeling all too easy to impossible.
How do the pros do it? How do they find stability during the turbulent parts of the round, when everything feels like it’s slipping away?
“I try to break it into smaller pieces,” McIlroy says. “Today I wasn’t focusing on one shot at a time. It was one foot in front of the other.”
When everything around you feels big and overwhelming, break it apart. If that still feels overwhelming, break it apart again. Don’t just take it down to the studs, get it to the nails. Focus on doing that first thing, then the next thing, then the one after that. One foot in front of the other; when you finally take a moment to look up, you may find yourself in some amazing places.
2. Analytics can’t cure – or be the blame – of everything
The US team took some heavy slings and arrows on the data and analytics front this week. Some fair – Harris English and Collin Morikawa seemed a statistically odd fit to play once, let alone twice, and were rewarded with two big losses – but others unfair.
Questions about the US team’s decision to chop down Bethpage’s rough, for instance, had a “What were you thinking?” undertone, but conveniently ignore the most important datapoint: the US team outperformed the European team by an impressive seven strokes from tee-to-green this week. If bad analytics explain the Harris–Morikawa outcome, it’s only fair to credit good analytics for the things that worked in their favour.
Photo: Michael Reaves/PGA of America
The truth is somewhere in between.
Using analytics to make well-informed decisions doesn’t work all of the time. Using analytics to make well-informed decisions shifts the odds slightly more in your favour, so that it works over time. On an individual level, luck and randomness and situational context often influence the outcome. The goal of using analytics isn’t to guarantee success right now. It’s to give yourself a little edge, which will add up over time.
3. Know how you recover best
The European team came to Bethpage a week before the Ryder Cup for a team practice session. Everyone showed up for that, and then most of the team stuck around the area to play various courses, including Friar’s Head, Shinnecock Hills (site of next year’s US Open) and some of Long Island’s other ritziest golf courses. Ludvig Åberg got on a plane and went back home to Florida for a few days before the Ryder Cup chaos began to focus on his recovery, but stayed in America’s eastern time zone.
“He gets very intense on the road, especially here,” said Hans Larsson, Åberg’s coach. “He’s a homebody. He wanted to relax at home, put his feet up, sleep in his own bed, practise on his own schedule. That’s how he recharges his batteries.”
Photo: David Cannon
It’s hard to imagine some part of Åberg didn’t feel guilty, or left out, for leaving his teammates behind. But it was a reminder of how these little sacrifices can often be the difference. Fast forward a few days, and Åberg earned the European team’s only win during the singles matches. It was an essential point stopping the most historic comeback, and a good reminder to not be afraid to do what’s best for you.
4. Get taller on your chips
Jon Rahm’s coach, Dave Phillips, dropped an interesting chipping tip during a chat early last week.
When he’s not teaching tour players, Phillips is a Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher who helps run the Titleist Performance Institute. He said he’s been analysing some 3D chipping data recently and found something interesting: the best chippers on tour get taller on both the backswing and through swings of their chipping action.
A common problem among amateur golfers, he says, is that golfers tend to move too far towards the ground on their backswing and downswing. This creates too much forward shaft lean, which can cause chunks.
“Getting taller is how they release the angle of the club, and use the bounce of the club,” he explains.
Get taller on the backswing and the downswing with your chips. It’s a fascinating idea. And I couldn’t help but think about it during one of Rahm’s chips in particular…
Photo: Michael Reaves/PGA of America
5. Square at setup, swing to your shape
Cameron Young was statistically the best US player at the Ryder Cup, and behind only Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick when it came to ball-striking. Young’s uptick in form over the past season coincided with his return to his preferred ball flight: a right-to-left draw.
A draw is the shot Young grew up playing, but he tried hitting more fades in recent years because of how common it is on tour. But it never felt right, so Young returned to his natural shot shape. Ahead of his eventual singles victory, his father and coach, David Young, shared some insight that can help the rest of us.
Photo: Scott Taetsch/PGA of America
“When you have a preferred shot shape, there are tendencies in your setup that can arise,” he said. “For Cam, we work on getting everything square at setup. When he does that, the shot shape stays under control.”
6. Turn your backswing like a Ferris Wheel
Bryson DeChambeau deserved far more than he got at this Ryder Cup. He was statistically the second-best American and sixth-best player overall, yet in five matches he gleaned just 1½ points. But Dana Dahlquist, a Golf Digest Top 50 teacher who coaches DeChambeau, did give us a great Ferris Wheel swing thought based on what Bryson has been working with.
The idea is that in order to get a properly loaded, coiled backswing, you need to properly pair a tilt and a turn.
Turning like a ferris wheel is the thought that helps you do that, because think about it: the ferris wheel doesn’t just turn around flat, like a spinning plate. It turns upright. That’s how Bryson’s, and your, backswing should feel, too. Turn your body up and around. You’ll get more power that way.
7. Every putt is 50-50
The one thing above all that fascinates me about the Ryder Cup is how pros square a specific circle: doing the thing you want to do, even though you know that thing is unlikely to happen. Like making a 15-footer to win the match. Pros have less than a 40 percent chance of making those putts, yet it happened twice in a row during the singles matches for the Americans on the 18th green, first for Cameron Young, then Justin Thomas, when it was needed most.
It’s fascinating, so I asked the most data-savvy guy on tour, Fitzpatrick:
“It was funny, we were watching golf earlier this year, and I can’t remember who it was, but they had a putt to win in a playoff or whatever it was, and it came up on the graph of like 20 percent make percentage. And my wife said something really funny. She was like, ‘Oh, I really don’t feel like that means anything anyway because I just feel like it’s either going in or it’s not.’ I was like, ‘I guess when you put it like that, that’s a good point.’ I guess every putt is 50 percent. But I think on weeks like this, I’ve noticed that putts go in from everywhere. Putts are missed from everywhere. It really is that kind of week when special things happen, both good and bad, and I think that’s what makes this event so special, as well. That’s why I feel like it’s such an incredible event to be a part of, and when you’re in the middle of playing in it, you’re basically willing every shot to go close, every putt to go in. You’re just hoping that that is going to add something to whatever it is that you’re doing.”
The essential mystery of golf remains unsolved for another day.
RELATED: ‘The Badge and The Boys’: Europe’s Ryder Cup inspiration comes from within
Bonus: Team culture matters
There’s a famous and funny meme about how the smartest and stupidest people agree on the essential truth about why things are the way they are. At dinner the night before the singles matches, my colleague Shane Ryan joked about what the Ryder Cup version of this meme would look like. The more I think about it, the more true I think it is.
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