Still High on the Ryder Cup Buzz: History vs. History

The Monday morning quarterbacks have moved on. Social media has cycled through 17 other controversies. But I'm still buzzing from those three September days at Bethpage Black.

The 2025 Ryder Cup? Absolute madness. Pure theater. Golf at its most ridiculous, beautiful extreme.

Going into Sunday's singles with Europe up 11½ to 4½, you'd have been forgiven for reaching for the remote. Blowouts happen. Except Captain Keegan Bradley apparently missed that memo, telling his boys Saturday night they were going to "make history."

Turns out both teams took him seriously.

Luke Donald's Europeans spent the first two days dismantling every assumption about visiting teams. They won all four opening sessions — literally never been done before on foreign soil. Nearly a century of Ryder Cup golf, and no away team had ever been this ruthless out of the gate.

Tommy Fleetwood went 4-0-0 in team play. Again. Did it in France in 2018, now pulled it off at Bethpage. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton?Unbeaten as foursomes partners, extending their streak to 4-0-0. Surgical doesn't begin to describe it.

"The level of professionalism he's shown us the last four years, his attention to detail … is what made these last two Ryder Cups possible," Rahm said about Donald. Custom bedding. Le Labo shampoo. Details that sound silly until you realize they work.

Then Sunday happened.

The Americans clawed back 8½ points in singles — tied the record under the current format. Europe managed exactly one singles win. One. Hasn't been that lopsided since Eisenhower was president.

Cameron Young, hometown kid from New York, buried a 10-footer on 18 to beat Justin Rose. Minutes later, Justin Thomas follows with a clutch 12-footer against Tommy Fleetwood. Suddenly the impossible felt inevitable.

Scottie Scheffler finally got his moment, beating Rory McIlroy 1-up in the first singles match ever between the world's top two players. "I can't speak enough to the fight that these guys have in this room," Scheffler said afterward. "After the butt-whooping we got the first two days … to come back today and play like we did … shows a lot of heart."

But every comeback needs its crescendo. Shane Lowry, standing over a 6-foot birdie putt on 18 to clinch for Europe. "That was the hardest couple of hours of my whole life," he admitted through tears. From 119 yards out, he'd striped his approach shot. Russell Henley missed his birdie. History waited.

Lowry made it. Of course he did.

Even the Europeans seemed stunned by what they'd witnessed. "Fair play to the U.S. lads," Lowry said. "We knew they were going to come out fighting." Donald called it "the most stressful 12 hours in my life," admitting, "I didn't think they would be this tough."