FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – On Sept. 26, 2021, the Ryder Cup’s balance of power had supposedly shifted.
The Americans had just run up the score in front of delirious home fans at Whistling Straits, dropping 19 points on an aging European team in dire need of a reboot. Eight of the 12 U.S. team members were under the age of 30. Their average world ranking: 8.9. Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were among those who represented not just the present power but also the future leaders – young, influential voices whose bonds to each other, their team and their country ran deep. Most who watched that week came away with the same conclusion: the Americans appeared poised for a decade-plus run of domination.
After all, they were younger, hungrier and stronger, while nearly half of the European team was past their prime and few options were in the pipeline. So humbling was the defeat that the team’s best player, Rory McIlroy, broke down afterward in a TV interview. He’d let down his captain, his teammates, himself. Through tears he explained that there’s nothing more special than playing on these teams. That’s plainly obvious in victory, of course, with the inside jokes and the backslapping and the champagne spraying. But perhaps it’s even more apparent when they lose.
So, four years later: What happened?
How did that nadir signal not a U.S. movement but rather a momentary blip?
Luke Donald deserves much of the credit for the turnaround, and he will go down as arguably the greatest captain in the history of the competition. A replacement fill-in after Henrik Stenson’s move to LIV, Donald employed the same meticulousness and obsessive qualities that powered his overachieving playing career to turn the captaincy into an art form. Clear communication, motivational tributes, an analytical back bone, clever techniques to prepare for the uncomfortable atmosphere (VR headsets!), even minute details such as the team hotel’s shampoo and bedding – they all contributed to Donald’s faultless leadership style that has been hailed by not just his own team but also his opponents.
It was easy to chalk up Europe’s five-point spread in 2023 to yet another home-game cakewalk. That anyone with that top-end talent, and so many built-in advantages, could have led the team to victory. But amid the euphoria afterward, McIlroy wasn’t having it. He pounded his fist on the table and guaranteed that this team was special, and this team was different, and this team would win again outside New York City in two years’ time.
“The wheels were set in motion to try to do something that had not been done in over a decade,” McIlroy said.
And so three significant changes were made with 2025 in mind.
Donald was quickly reinstalled as captain, giving him what amounted to a four-year term to maintain continuity, tweak his game plan and build on the many successes of Rome. He and his analytics team overhauled the qualifying system, more heavily weighing marquee events on the PGA and European tours, that would make it more difficult for rookies to crack the roster; their data showed that, while first-timers can benefit from the energy of home games, they don’t fare nearly as well in hostile environments on the road. (It worked: 11 of the 12 players were the same year-over-year, the least amount of turnover in cup.) And finally, they organized a two-day scouting trip, held last week at Bethpage Black, that gave the players an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the venue, test out analytics- and personality-driven pairings, and adjust to the five-hour time difference.
“I really have committed myself to this job because I feel I owe it to the players and I owe it to the Ryder Cup, which has been so special to me,” Donald said. “Every day I’m trying to think about things that could help us, to come up with different things that might just give us a little edge.”
“My job,” he continued, “is literally to give these guys a better chance to win.”
The players took it from there.
Old warhorses Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Stenson are all out of the picture, having decamped for LIV and alienating themselves from the squad. In their place are like-minded players who seem to share a genuine affection for each other and unify around a common goal.
“That’s all that matters, honestly,” said Justin Rose, at 45 the team’s elder statesman. “The badge and the boys.”
Tommy Fleetwood, Bob MacIntyre and Sepp Straka are all stronger, more well-rounded players than they were two years ago. Ludvig Åberg and Tyrrell Hatton boast more big-game experience. But the key difference-maker for Team Europe – particularly compared to their American counterparts – remains the man at the top.
McIlroy infamously began his Ryder Cup career by shrugging off the event as a meaningless exhibition, and now he insists, through his words and his actions, that it’s the biggest and best event of ’em all. He has changed his tune even as his legendary individual accolades pile up, as he becomes richer and more famous, as the demands on his time grow exponentially – and that’s a powerful example.
“Rory has made no qualms about how important the Ryder Cup is to him, and I think that’s inspiring to me. It’s inspiring to his team,” Donald said. “Maybe not quite on the same level as winning the Grand Slam and the Masters, but it’s pretty effin’ close. It really is. So to have someone of Rory’s caliber fighting so hard, that’s inspiring for the team. Obviously, you can’t do it alone, but it’s very helpful when someone like Rory is contributing like he does.”
Europe entered Sunday singles at Bethpage Black leading by seven points before the U.S. gave the visitors everything they had in what ended a 15-13 European victory.
It’s in the team room, where he carries the loudest voice.
It’s in the interview area, where he shoulders much of the burden.
And it’s inside the ropes, where his game and his aura are so overpowering that it tilts the course in his direction. He’s the focal point wherever and whenever he plays – and that, by extension, allows the rest of his teammates to play with freedom.
Never was that more on display than at Bethpage Black, where (sorry, Monty) there wasn’t a player in Ryder Cup history who endured more abuse over three days than McIlroy. He wanted the smoke and got it. Thousands endlessly booed him. Some ruthlessly taunted him. Even the first-tee emcee savagely started a “F–k you, Rory!” chant.
None of it worked.
McIlroy and Fleetwood twice went 5 under in alternate shot to breeze to victories. He birdied two of the last three holes to scratch out a tie in fourballs, then combined with his partner to go 9 under the next day despite jeering that was so intense, so personal and so vulgar, that nearly two dozen cops were pressed into action to defuse the situation.
Granted, McIlroy snapped a few times, moments for which he didn’t apologize. He bowed and blew kisses to the crowd. He singled some out and barked expletives in retaliation. He complained to the match referee that he wouldn’t play another shot until the fans quieted. Another time, he told a fan to “shut the f–k up” – and then proceeded to stuff his wedge to 3 feet.
No other competitor in this 45th Ryder Cup had endured what McIlroy had over the past three days at Bethpage Black, where he was subject to a constant barrage of heckling and personal attacks from the partisan New York crowd.
In the weeks leading up to the Ryder Cup, he’d viewed such ugliness as “inevitable,” owing to the increasingly political nature of sports, the area renowned for aggressive fandom and humans being capable of withstanding only so much abuse across 36 hours of game action.
So when he delivered amid the cacophony of cursing, McIlroy said, yes, indeed, it was “very f–king satisfying.”
His teammates fed off that antagonistic energy.
Rose delighted in pouring in daggers. Jon Rahm was relentless for two days. Shane Lowry went ballistic when his final-hole birdie secured the cup. Eleven of the 12 players earned at least one point, a total team effort that took its cues from its emotional leader.
“There’s a stimulus and a response, and in between that is how you decide what you want to do with it,” Donald said. “I think some people find that motivating.”
Just as it was motivating to avenge a 19-9 humiliation.
To make history on the road.
And to remind everyone that the balance of power in this event never shifted. Team USA once again appears adrift, while the future of the Europeans has never seemed more secure, more cohesive, more formidable.
“We talk about all the people that came before us that paved the way for us,” Donald said. “Now, future generations will talk about this team tonight and what they did and how they were able to overcome one of the toughest environments in all of sport. That’s inspiring to me, and that’s what Rory gets and all of these other 11 guys get.”
As Donald spoke, McIlroy nodded and blinked back tears. The magnitude of the moment was hitting him again. These were the best weeks of their golfing lives, and they damn sure knew it.
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