Bryson DeChambeau makes a big show of pulling his driver out of the bag to huge cheers from the crowd.
Complete silence as he lines up to the tee then huge cheers as he nails it towards the green.
He’s pumped as he marches down the fairway, turning towards the crowd to fire them up some more.
American captain Keegan Bradley made the decision on Friday to run back the combination of Harris English and Collin Morikawa after they were trounced by Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy in the opening foursome session.
It’s not exactly been received well.
According to data golf, a reputable golf analytics website, the English/Morikawa pairing was the 132nd best possible duo of American players out of 132 possible combinations. The decision to trot that duo out again, facing the same opponents, led to Bradley facing some sharp questions from the press on Friday’s press conference.
“Well, we have a plan of what we’re going to do. They beat us today, but you know, we’re really comfortable with our plan. We’re really comfortable with those two players. Excited who they are playing tomorrow,” Bradley said.
“Be an exciting match, and we’re sticking to our plan. We’re not going to panic. We’re not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We’re going to stick to what we know. We have a lot of confidence in them.”
When asked if he had different analytics that led to his decision or was going off his gut, Bradley said, “I would say it’s a little bit of both. They were really bummed out that they lost their match today. They were eager to get back out on the course, and that’s why we did that.”
Anticipation is building in the packed grandstand around the first tee ahead of the Saturday morning session, and after Europe’s dominant start, their fans are finding their voice. “Olé, olé, olé, olé” and “Bethpage is a library” are but two of the chants taunting the Americans who were stunned into silence on Friday.
US vice captain Jim Furyk has appeared on the tee to rally the charge, “We need the best fans in the world today,” he says, leading the chants of “USA!”
Bethpage was turned black and blue as the visitors beat them up yesterday, how will the home team fight back?
We’re edging closer to getting underway on Day 2 with Team USA’s Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Young set to take on Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick in the opening foursomes matchup at 7:10 a.m. ET.
The pairing of showman DeChambeau with New York native Young is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, perhaps a conscious decision from US captain Keegan Bradley to whip up the Bethpage Black masses as early as possible after they were stifled by the Europeans’ dominance Friday.
Ryder Cup rookie Young was one of the few bright spota from a Stars and Stripes perspective on Day 1, pouring in four birdies to help Justin Thomas make short work of Åberg and Rasmus Højgaard in his sole matchup.
Åberg will be out for revenge and will be full of confidence he has the perfect partner to take it. The Swede dovetailed with England’s Fitzpatrick superbly on Friday morning to maul world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley in a 5&3 foursomes win.
Pádraig Harrington was Europe’s last Ryder Cup captain in the US and he knows more than anyone that the crowd could be a key factor in New York.
The three-time major winner explains that ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, Team Europe has paid close attention to what could be a rowdy Bethpage crowd and has been using modern methods to alleviate some of the disruptions.
“I know they have practiced with hecklers,” Harrington told CNN Sports. “That’s what I’d be doing. I’d be preparing myself that it’s only name calling, they’re not coming over the ropes and I would have as much noise and as much heckling going on as they could in preparation.
“I’m sure they have with the VR and stuff like that, that they’re using just to desensitize.
“Hopefully, all the other preparation that (Team Europe captain) Luke (Donald) has done – I suspect that they’d be better equipped to deal with this than ever.”
Harrington also says a quick start could quickly silence the US fans.
“If Europe could get off to good start, those fans could turn on the Americans. The New York crowd turn on their own teams when they don’t perform,” Harrington explains.
Given Team Europe is three points up after Day 1, it remains to be seen if a poor Day 2 start for the Americans could prove Harrington right.
Team USA dominated from start to finish in its 19-9 win at Whistling Straits in 2021. And with a young and exciting team, it looked like there would be a period of US dominance in the Ryder Cup’s foreseeable future.
But Team Europe bounced back – and in some style – in Rome two years ago and nobody seemed happier about this win than Europe’s 2021 captain Pádraig Harrington.
“What I love about it, and I really, really, really take a lot of heart out of is, after the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, a lot of commentators basically said the Ryder Cup was over for the next 10-20 years,” Harrington says.
“The US were just going to dominate, and that was it. It was going to be boring. This team is not going to lose forever.
“And what happens? They get hammered in Rome. Brilliant, just brilliant.”
This year’s Ryder Cup is certainly not a foregone conclusion and the rivalry that has been simmering over recent days and weeks is now just about ready to reach boiling point.
Home advantage always counts for something in sport, but arguably it is most important in golf’s biennial Ryder Cup.
The American team hasn’t been able to win overseas since 1993, and no traveling team from Europe has won on foreign soil since its victory at Medinah in 2012. For Team Europe, three of its last four road trips have ended up with the squad being mauled by an average of seven points. The team captains will do anything possible to help their team and, for the event host, that can mean weaponizing the very golf course itself.
To the untrained eye, Ryder Cup golf courses might all look rather similar, but if you know where to look, the home captain’s fingerprints will be everywhere. At Bethpage Black this week, the players will all walk past the infamous sign on the first tee that warns of the “extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled players,” but the Europeans will know that it’s been tweaked to make it even harder for them.
The US captain admitted as much to CNN Sports on Monday.
“We look at the analytical data and how our players perform at their best and we set up the course accordingly,” US captain Keegan Bradley said. “One of the great things being a captain is to have a say in how the course is set up.”
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A lot goes into being a Ryder Cup captain, far more than meets the eye. But despite the years of precisely planning every small detail, the aims of a captain remain simple.
“Your goal as captain is to win,” Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington told CNN Sports.
Harrington explains that this hasn’t always been the case when playing in the Ryder Cup. During the early days of the tournament, he says the team environment was nowhere near the same.
With greater emphasis placed on camaraderie and the addition of extra vice-captains, however, things have changed in recent years.
“There’s always somebody that (the players) have appointed, that they can discuss and talk to. So that helps people feel part of it,” Harrington said.
Will teamwork make the dream work this weekend?
Friday and Saturday morning host foursomes play, a format in which teams of two take alternate shots of the same ball until each hole is complete.
For example, Scottie Scheffler could tee off, but his American playing partner would be the one playing from wherever the world No. 1’s drive landed. Teammates alternate hitting tee shots, so Scheffler’s partner would begin the next hole.
Whichever pair finds the cup in the fewest strokes wins that hole, with the hole tied if both teams manage it in the same number of strokes. The winner of the most holes clinches the match and a point for the overall scoreboard, with a tied match rewarding each side with half a point.
You may see results listed like “won 4&3,” which would – in that case – mean a pair was four holes up with three holes to play and, as a result, could not be caught.
Scheffler and Brooks Koepka made unwanted history in Italy two years ago when they were obliterated 9&7 by Scandinavian duo Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg, the largest margin of victory for any 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history.
One raucous day down, two to go at the 45th Ryder Cup.
Fans have been flocking through the Bethpage Black gates since the crack of the dawn to get in position for the second day of battle in New York, with the majority hoping to see a much improved performance from Team USA.
The hosts already trail the Europeans by three points after a chastening start to the tournament, President Donald Trump’s boisterous arrival unable to galvanize captain Keegan Bradley’s squad as it slid into a 5.5 – 2.5 deficit.
It’s a bad omen for the Americans, who have gone on to lose the last six Ryder Cups that they trailed on the opening day. With eight points of a remaining 20 to fight for across the foursomes and fourballs sessions on Saturday, they need a response and fast when play begins at 7:10 a.m. ET.
Rest assured, CNN Sports is on hand to keep you up to date with every twist, turn and tee off on day two.