Team USA threatened a Ryder Cup miracle before falling short in their bid for a record comeback against Team Europe, leaving Keegan Bradley’s side under scrutiny for a home defeat in New York.

“This is no one’s fault but mine,” Bradley admitted in his press conference. “When you are the leader of the team and you’re the coach, the captain – whatever you want to call it – and you lose, you have to take the blame.

“This is no one else’s fault. Sometimes in sports, you go up against an opponent that sometimes beats you; they play better. And they [Europe] played better than us. We gave it a great fight, that’s for sure.”

New approach to Team USA captaincy doesn’t deliver

Bradley last featured at the Ryder Cup as a player in 2014 and had never previously served in a vice-captaincy role against Team Europe, making his appointment a surprise when announced last June.

Bradley didn’t rule out being a playing-captain in the months leading up to the tournament, and the likelihood increased after his Travelers Championship win in June, with the 39-year-old having to juggle playing on the PGA Tour with captaincy duties.

“I had to learn a lot on the fly,” Bradley conceded. “I had to rely on a lot of people. I did the best that I could, and trying to balance playing, but it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life.

“I wouldn’t trade any of this for a second. I woke up every day excited to do this. It turned me into a different person that I am today that I am very thankful for these guys for. I had the resources of all the vice captains and all the previous captains, as well, that helped me.

“I think the goal was to give the captaincy a fresh face, a different way to go about things. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But we have some momentum going forward.”

Image:Keegan Bradley took responsibility for Team USA’s Ryder Cup loss

Bethpage fails to offer home course advantage

Players are greeted with a warning sign when stepping onto the first tee at Bethpage Black, describing it as an ‘extremely difficult course’ for ‘highly skilled golfers’, but there was little sign of that during this year’s Ryder Cup.

The home team get to set up the golf course as they wish, with the PGA of America widening fairways and cutting the rough short to make the course far less penal than we’ve seen when majors have been hosted at the same venue.

Team USA’s historical length advantage off the tee was not the same for this year’s contest, leaving the set-up seemingly more focused around finding greens in regulation – from the fairway or elsewhere – and creating birdie chances.

Throw in extra rain on the final two practice days and benign conditions on Friday, what is traditionally a challenging test was left – at times – into a putting contest that Team Europe thrived in.

“I definitely made a mistake on the course set up,” Bradley said. “I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition. For whatever reason, that wasn’t the right way to set the course up. The greens were as soft as I’ve ever seen greens without it raining.

“Especially here, it can get pretty firm, and they never firmed up. We thought this was the best way to set the golf course up to win. You’ve got to make a decision on what to do and, if I could go back, I probably would have changed that.”

‘Vibes’ don’t work for USA pairings

Data Golf’s analysis on Team USA’s potential line-ups, based on their modelling and shot data, put Harris English and Collin Morikawa as 132nd out of a possible 132 as a suitable foursomes pairing.

Not only did Bradley roll out that combination in the opening morning foursomes, he stuck with the same duo despite them being thrashed 5&4 during that session.

In-form Cam Young was left out of the opening morning in front of his native New York crowds, then went onto finish joint-top scorer with three points, while JJ Spaun – another expected to impress – was benched for two sessions over the first two days.

Slow start haunts Team USA as Europe took control

Team Europe took the largest lead into the singles in Ryder Cup history, having won each of the first four sessions, with a sensational Saturday opening a record-breaking 11.5-4.5 advantage.

Europe outscored the USA 6-2 in foursomes, equalling their largest margin in an away Ryder Cup under the current format, with the fast start leaving Donald’s side requiring just 2.5 points to retain or three points to win on the final day.

The visitors were limited to just one full point on the final day, as Ludvig Åberg defeated Patrick Cantlay, with Bradley proud of how close his side got to completing one of the great sporting comebacks.

“When you go out in sports and you’re battling your butt off to win, it shows you just how proud these guys are and how much they want this and how much this means to them,” Bradley explained.

“To watch them go out all week and hold their heads high and then go out there today and do what they did is close to a miracle. To be able to do stuff like that under pressure is remarkable, and to watch it up close was special.”

New York crowd provides more headaches than help

The raucous American crowd was meant to act as the ’13th man’ or ’15th club’ for the home team, providing a loud and partisan environment for the European players, but some fans pushed the limits and offered the opposite impact.

The first-tee atmosphere on the opening morning failed to live up to the cauldron provided by Marco Simone GC in Rome two years ago, before tensions quickly grew as heckling, abusive shouts and expletives were all directed at Donald’s side.

Attempts to rally the American fans on Saturday morning included the first-tee announcer encouraging chants of ‘f*** you Rory’, resulting in such criticism at the PGA of America that she stepped back from her role for the final day, with McIlroy taking the brunt of crowd hostility.

A fractious atmosphere saw multiple spectators ejected for bad behaviour and extra security being drafted in along the fairways, with fans accused of ‘crossing the line’ with their vile comments at players.

The negative energy appeared to feed through to the players, who failed to make home advantage count until their brilliant rally on the final day, as a strong European fan contingent enjoyed a famous away success.

“Cam [Young] and I just wished that we gave them something to cheer for instead of people to cheer against,” Justin Thomas said. “I think that was the main consensus of the last two days, that we weren’t giving them enough to cheer for, and they were just trying to help us win. I guess that’s the New York fans for you.”

Scheffler and star names fail to deliver

There was the comical situation on Saturday evening where Tommy Fleetwood’s points haul was only 0.5 less over the first two days than all 12 managed by the Americans, who saw their world’s best fail to deliver in the team environment.

Scottie Scheffler looked a shell of the player that has been the dominant force of men’s golf in recent seasons and won two majors in 2025, with the 29-year-old losing his first four matches before beating a jaded Rory McIlroy in the Sunday singles.

It wasn’t much better for Bryson DeChambeau, who led Team USA on the opening morning, with the two-time US Open champion losing three of his first four matches before delivering a dramatic comeback from five down to earn a tie with Matt Fitzpatrick in singles.

Those two combined for just 2.5 points across the three days, with Cantlay – a Ryder Cup stalwart – only returning 1.5 from his three, whereas Europe’s leading quartet all contributed at least three points each.

“The Americans came up empty every single time over the first two days and they were down early in a lot of the singles matches today before fighting back,” Sky Sports’ Rich Beem said. “They didn’t quit, but they can’t look at today and say, ‘we did it so well and just feel short.’ No. You fell short on Friday and Saturday.”

Continuity proves key for Team Europe

Eleven of Donald’s victorious team and four of his vice-captains from the 2023 success returned in Rome, bringing a familiar feel to a European team described as the most prepared ever for an away Ryder Cup.

Image:Luke Donald poses with the Ryder Cup

European players were calling for Donald to lead them into the 2027 contest at Adare Manor during their winner’s press conference, having joined Tony Jacklin as the only European captain to win back-to-back Ryder Cups.

“Luke’s an incredible leader,” Bradley admitted. “I think he was able to kind of come out of his shell a little in these Ryder Cup years. I think he turned this European Team into a really unstoppable force, especially the first two days.

“In my eyes, I think he’s the best European Ryder Cup captain ever. I was really excited to go up against him, but I knew it was going to be tough to beat him.

Image:Ryder Cup, Team Europe

“He put his team in the best position to win and to do that at these two places is a remarkable feat.”

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