Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony: The calm before the storm but Europe primed for both
A general view of the 2025 Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony which took place on Wednesday at Bethpage Black, New York. Picture: Cian O’Regan.
Before the wet stuff, the first burst of boos drizzled down.
With a dirty, soaking Thursday in the forecast, the opening ceremony of the 45th Ryder Cup got the show on the road earlier than scheduled here on Wednesday evening.
Under steadily greying skies Luke Donald and his team got a first real flavour of a New York welcome, the jeers and boos from thousands gathered near Bethpage Black’s 1st tee drowning out European cheers.
Donald mostly played diplomat but after 72 hours of chatter around the pay deal being handed to the Americans for the first time in the tournament’s history there was one pointed line when he said his team “are fuelled by something money cannot buy”.
The holders, smartly suited in dark black and crisp white for ceremonial duties, have history firmly on their mind this week.
Unfortunately, the home captain followed Donald up to the dais and got his history all wrong. Keegan Bradley was recounting how he fell in love with the Ryder Cup in 1999 when the iconic clinching putt was made by "Justin Rose".
It was, of course, Justin Leonard who had that moment in Brookline and not the current European team member. The first fluffed American lines of tournament week got a good laugh out of the visiting team.
The pomp and pageantry being moved forward 24 hours caused plenty of knock-on effects and hasty rearrangements. But none of this knocked a beat out of any of those who’d practiced in creamy yellow earlier Wednesday.
Across each of the four tune-up days here, Europe’s colour palette has harked back to a glory on American soil. Wednesday’s ensemble was in tribute to the 2004 landslide at Oakland Hills when Bernhard Langer’s men mortified Hal Sutton’s team, 18.5 to 9.5.
Victory in Rome two years ago wasn’t quite as comprehensive, the Americans picking up 11.5 points to make things marginally more respectable.
Respectability has been part of the European approach across the first three days on Long Island. A very chilled charm offensive has been unleashed on the Gotham galleries, visiting stars signing enough autographs to make wrist fatigue a genuine concern.
On Tuesday Rory McIlroy beckoned a young fan under the ropes, past marshals and on to the middle of the fairway and signed his T-shirt as practice partner Shane Lowry smiled. The following day Lowry was leaving no fist unbumped, no selfie untaken, darting off to the ropes to sign everything and anything, including a giant Offaly GAA flag.
You can call this all the calm before the storm but Donald’s team is undoubtedly primed for both. The unprecedented continuity in being able to bring 11 of the 12 champions of Rome back together, switching up Højgaard twins barely a shuffle at all, has surely helped.
The intervening two years has seen the returning rookies of Rome — Ludvig Aberg, Robert MacIntyre and Sepp Straka — blossom further in their careers.
While form for many of Europe’s leading lights would have been a concern in mid-summer, so many found a fresh groove as this week approached. Straka is perhaps the only one who arrives in a bit of a funk. But all pitch up here as more seasoned operators.
“[From] Rome and this one, I guess it's kind of a little bit of a changing of the guard in terms of experience,” said Tommy Fleetwood Wednesday.
“But I think the team now is more, everybody is a bit more on a level playing field, and you have your [experienced] guys. Rory, as if he's playing an eighth Ryder Cup. It's unbelievable.”
Fresh off ending his PGA Tour drought in some style at the Tour Championship Fleetwood shapes to be a pivotal member of Donald’s dozen looking to end another drought — no road victory since 2012. While McIlroy leads the way with those eight appearances, one more than Justin Rose, Fleetwood is one of four Europeans playing in a fourth Ryder Cup.
Contrast that with the 12 men Keegan Bradley led out on to the stage Wednesday evening. Justin Thomas, the veteran, is the only one among them to have played in three previous editions.
Where this also helps is in the combinations and permutations. Donald and his support team are all about reading the numbers, vice captain Edoardo Molinari lauded as professional golf’s data whisperer. From Rome they bring a much more functional set of statistics than anything Bradley can use. Analytics must, however, be matched by emotions.
“Good partnerships, I think the last few years, statistics have played a big role in that,” said Fleetwood. “The game has gone more in that direction, and there's definitely statistically partnerships that can suit each other very, very well.
“Of course especially in foursomes, you need to have some kind of, like, emotional connection. You need to be close and get on. But that has never been anything that we've needed to worry about in Team Europe. We've always been very blessed and very lucky with how close our team is and how close our team becomes.”
In both foursomes in Rome, Fleetwood partnered McIlroy to brilliant effect, defeating Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay on Friday before taking down the vaunted pairing of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on Saturday.
When Friday’s opening pairings are announced on Thursday evening it would be a big surprise to see any other name beside Fleetwood than the Holywood man.
“Whoever gets to play with Rory this week, like what a privilege. What an amazing thing to be able to do, to stand next to him on the golf course and play alongside him.
"The energy that I think he has, that he brings to your team, is amazing. If I'm one of them that gets a chance to play with him, I would love that opportunity. And whatever energy he decides to bring, I'll be there to support him and be a good partner for him.”
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