Team USA’s loss at the Ryder Cup has left plenty of questions, especially after becoming the first American side in over a decade to lose on home soil.
They got off to a rough start at Bethpage, with Luke Donald’s side winning three of the first four sessions 3-1. That left Europe needing just 2.5 points on Sunday to hold onto the trophy.
Keegan Bradley’s team did manage an impressive comeback during the singles, but Europe only needed one win from the 11 matches to secure victory, and they got it.
Ludvig Aberg provided that key point for Europe, getting past Patrick Cantlay in his match.
Why people are getting it wrong about Team USA after the Ryder Cup
Aberg’s caddie, Joe Skovron, knows well both sides of the Ryder Cup. The American not only worked for Aberg in New York but also carried Rickie Fowler’s bag when he played for Team USA in 2016.
So, few can compare what it is like inside both camps quite like Skovron and his thoughts must be listened to.
Speaking to CBS Sports, he pointed out why so many people have the wrong idea about how much the event means to Team USA.
“The general misconception I hear is the Americans don’t care. I was in that room, everybody cares. Maybe there’s mistakes along the way. Or maybe they haven’t shown up and played as well as they need to, or maybe haven’t met the expectations that people have, and the Euros have done certain things better.
“The whole thing about they don’t care is wild to me. People act like, ‘oh, it doesn’t mean enough to them’. And the money thing, that whole thing I think has been blown out of proportion. I have my own opinions about that. But that doesn’t mean they don’t care. It doesn’t mean they’re not trying to win. Keegan put his heart and soul into it. And somebody’s going to lose every time.”
Team USA have a major problem to fix if they want to keep pace with Europe
While Bradley made some errors, the European side looked better organised. Donald’s isolated misstep might have been overplaying Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm, all of whom lost their matches on Sunday.
It is possible that Europe started preparing for 2025 as early as 2022, when Donald took the job. After Rome, they felt confident that the pieces were in place to go into New York and win.
Team USA are still searching for that same stability, and based on Skovron’s view from inside the European camp this time around, they might not be as far off as people think.
“Yeah, there was definitely some differences. There was a lot more similarities than people think too. But there was definitely some differences. The hard part for me is that’s the only room I’ve been in, and they’re usually very-captain dependent, so I don’t know if that’s Luke or if that’s the European team as a whole, or their programme and what they’ve become. So that’s hard for me to separate unless I see another captain and it stays the same.
“You’re walking in with a guy they trust, because they won in Rome, 11 of the same players, those two things right there are just a huge advantage. But I did notice as a whole, it was pointed out to me by a couple of the higher ups at the European Tour that the European Tour runs that part for them, so they already have a relationship with these guys.
“I think the connection to history that Luke did, our practice round outfits were all the times that we’ve won away. All those things, the guys feel connected to Seve, to this, to all these things that were there, and the thing I noticed with this team, and I don’t know if it’s like this on every team, there was no questioning Luke and there was no questioning Edoardo. If Edoardo told us we were hitting on odds, we hit on odds. If they told us we were going with somebody, there was no questioning it.”