Biggest golf moments of 2025 No. 5: Europe wins another Ryder Cup<\/p>\n
The winning Ryder Cup<\/a> team\u2019s Sunday-evening press conference is always a lively affair \u2014\u00a0especially so when the Europeans prevail, as they have now in 11 of the last 15 editions, including at the 2025 matches at Bethpage Black<\/a>, where they were led for a second time by captain Luke Donald.<\/p>\n Early in the Q&A session at Bethpage, a reporter asked no one in particular: \u201cIn America, we are under a constant quest of what makes a good captain. We\u2019re still trying to figure it out. What do you think makes Luke such a good leader of men?\u201d<\/p>\n Jon Rahm gave a vague answer about Donald\u2019s professionalism and attention to detail before the reporter asked if anyone else wanted to weigh in.<\/p>\n Donald spoke up first: \u201cJust have a good 12 guys.\u201d<\/p>\n To which Rory McIlroy said: \u201cNo, it\u2019s more than that. His communication skills\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Which prompted Shane Lowry to interrupt: \u201c\u2014let\u2019s not give it away; how about that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll shut up,\u201d McIlroy said with a smile<\/p>\n Thing is, though, the Europeans\u2019 winning formula \u2014\u00a0both for captain and team \u2014\u00a0isn\u2019t a secret, at least not anymore. They have cohesion. They have continuity. And they have buy-in that brings the guys together in a way that the Americans have been unable to replicate. <\/p>\n \u201cThe badge and the boys,\u201d is how Justin Rose summed up his team\u2019s brotherhood in the wake of Europe\u2019s 15-13 victory. \u201cThat\u2019s all that matters, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n This time around, the cohesion and continuity part required little grease, because Donald had pieced together virtually the same squad he\u2019d captained to victory in Rome in 2023. Of his 12 players at Bethpage, Donald had just one new face: Rasmus H\u00f8jgaard, who replaced his twin brother Nicolai.<\/p>\n Which isn\u2019t to say Capt. Donald merely hit the rinse-and-repeat button; on the contrary, he employed new tactics both large and small. <\/p>\n He consulted with stats whizzes and sleep experts and the likes of former Premier League chief Richard Scudamore and Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie; he swapped out the sheets and shampoo in his team\u2019s hotel rooms so they might rest (and smell!) better; he had his players prepare for the smack-talking New York crowds with virtual-reality headsets; he took his boys to New York nearly two weeks ahead of the matches so they could acclimate to the course and its surrounds while also dial in his pairings. \u201cThe most prepared team I\u2019ve ever come across,\u201d former European captain Paul McGinley said.<\/p>\n Keegan Bradley\u2019s decision loomed over golf. 1 Ryder Cup question remains<\/a><\/p>\n By:<\/p>\n Donald explained his prep this way: \u201cIt\u2019s just taking the time and having the care that you want to do everything you can to kind of give these guys the best opportunity. You want to create an environment where they can succeed. These are 12 amazing players, we know that. You\u2019re just trying to, again, put them in a position where they feel comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this month a handful of former European Ryder Cuppers \u2014\u00a0Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Bernhard Langer<\/a>, Darren Clarke, among others \u2014 convened at a golf club just west of Tampa, Fla., for the second playing of the Skechers World Champions Cup<\/a>, a three-team event that pits the best senior players from the U.S, Europe and the rest the world. The tournament had fantasy-camp vibes: the greats of yesteryear coming back together to relive past glories and also make some new memories.<\/p>\n The Europeans looked a little grayer and softer-around-the-middles than they did two or three decades ago, but the joy they exuded from being around one another hadn\u2019t appeared to wane at all. Ditto the respect they so clearly have for one another. All these years they still looked and felt like a team.<\/p>\n When I asked Clarke, the team captain, about that positive energy, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s not too difficult to get a really good European team bond. That\u2019s what comes to us. Whenever we used to go play Ryder Cups, one of our mantras on the European side was you park your ego outside on the Monday morning and pick it up on the Monday after the Ryder Cup. This team, we have no egos here. We\u2019re all just trying to help each other and do the best we can do this week.\u201d<\/p>\n If that messaging sounds familiar, it might be because Donald said something very similar on that Sunday evening at Bethpage: \u201cIf I come up to [my players] and say, \u2018What do you think about this?\u201d They say, \u201cI trust in you, Luke. Let\u2019s go with it.\u2019 Again, that is a nice thing to have. It\u2019s nice to not have those big egos in the team room.\u201d<\/p>\n The same will be true two years from now when the Europeans will try to defend their title at Adare Manor. There\u2019s a good chance Donald will be back for one more captaincy and a better-than-good chance that the core of his team will also remain unchanged.<\/p>\n Why mess with a good thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past 12 months had a little of everything \u2014 a career Grand Slam, Ryder Cup chaos and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-371899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Keegan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/keegan-bradley-sunday-ryder-cup.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Josh Schrock <\/a><\/p>\n