{"id":192606,"date":"2025-10-06T06:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/192606\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T06:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:04:07","slug":"were-bethpages-green-speeds-to-blame-for-u-s-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/192606\/","title":{"rendered":"Were Bethpage’s green speeds to blame for U.S. loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the week since the U.S. team\u2019s crushing Ryder Cup loss to Europe<\/a>, a number of theories have surfaced in terms of who \u2014 or what \u2014 is to blame<\/a>. One recurring theme: the green speeds at Bethpage Black<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the U.S. team\u2019s post-loss press conference on Sunday, American captain Keegan Bradley admitted he \u201cmade a mistake\u201d<\/a> with his course set-up directives \u2014 which included moving up tees and cutting down Bethpage\u2019s famously gnarly rough \u2014 which inadvertently played into Europe\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Another problem? \u201cThe greens were as soft as I\u2019ve ever seen greens without it raining,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cEspecially here, it can get pretty firm, and they never firmed up. We didn\u2019t want the greens to be like this soft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to make more putts,\u201d said captain\u2019s pick Justin Thomas, who went 2-2-0. \u201cThat\u2019s what Keegan needed; he needed us to make more putts.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Bradley refused to place the blame on anyone but himself for the Americans\u2019 issues, vice captain Jim Furyk said that U.S. players had doubts that the greens were running at the requested speed of 12.5 on the Stimpmeter.<\/p>\n


\n \"Tommy <\/a><\/p>\n

What Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup team has that U.S. needs more of<\/a><\/p>\n

By:<\/p>\n


\n Michael Bamberger <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told that they were 12 and a half on the stimp,\u201d Furyk said ahead of this week\u2019s Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament on the PGA Tour Champions. \u201cI think that was the request. We were told that they stimped out that in the morning. Our players one by one didn\u2019t think they reached that. I didn\u2019t have a stimp in my hand to actually confirm it, nor was I allowed to hit a putt as a vice captain. That\u2019s a rule. So I can\u2019t tell you because I didn\u2019t get to hit a putt. I wish I would have though.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys had a hard time getting putts to the hole and it did appear to be a little gluey,\u201d Furyk continued. \u201cI think the request was always there to set the golf course up with less rough, but I think also believing that the greens would be firmer. I know we got some rain mid week but they were really, really soft when we arrived. So that probably is an issue a little bit. It\u2019s not how we were looking at the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faster greens should have played to the U.S. team\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think historically we play faster greens on the PGA Tour than [the Europeans] do [on the DP World Tour],\u201d Bradley said after Saturday\u2019s four-ball session, which the Europeans won 3-1. \u201cObviously when we go over to their British Open, the greens are considerably slower than what we play on in an average week. I think like British Open, they are around 10, 10 and a half, maybe 11. For us, when we play faster greens, they generally quicken up as the week goes on [and] the weather\u2019s good. That\u2019s normally what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the week since the U.S. team\u2019s crushing Ryder Cup loss to Europe, a number of theories have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-192606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}