It’s time!

Yes, the wait is finally over. It’s officially Ryder Cup week. After Europe’s decisive win at Marco Simone in 2023, the Americans now hope to serve their own brand of justice at home. If you are like me, you’ve probably been watching Ryder Cup videos leading up to this week. Over the past few months, the Ryder Cup YouTube channel has been rolling out short videos featuring past matches, behind-the-scenes looks at both the European and American teams, and insights from their captains. 

A few weeks ago, the team lineups were announced, and ever since, analysts, commentators, and everyday fans alike have been speculating how the matchups will play out. Of course, potential pairings are always a key factor in any Ryder Cup. 

Let’s try to play team captain and see which players could potentially score the most points for each squad.

Team Europe 

Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland

This pair dominated in Italy. For such a young and untested tandem, scoring a massive win over Scheffler and Koepka in a record-setting  9-up with 7 holes remaining should ensure that the Hovland/Aberg pair will be making a comeback at Bethpage.

Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood

This team did well in 2023 and could be an even stronger team this time around with Fleetwood finally hurdling a win in the US at this year’s Tour Championship. If there’s one player on Team Europe who’s desperate for an away win, it has to be Rory. 

In Marco Simone, just as the Europeans were celebrating their win, Rory was already talking about an away win in 2025. If that doesn’t show how much fire he has in him, I don’t know what does. I mean, you just won and all you can think about is how badly you want to win in 2 years? Talk about passionate!  

Rahm and Hatton

Jon Rahm has always been a big-time player. In 2023, his partnership with Tyrell Hatton produced valuable points for the Europeans. Hatton has been in decent form for coming into the Ryder Cup, and with a successful pairing last time, Luke Donald might just keep things as is for this year.

For Team Europe, it would be more of a case of “don’t fix what’s not broken.”

Team USA

Keegan Bradley has his hands full this week. With the pressure of winning at home and at an iconic venue like Bethpage, I’m sure he’s lost quite a bit of sleep preparing his team. An advantage he has coming from a loss is that he has a virtual free hand at pairing players together. There aren’t “must-pairs” in the team, and he could come up with his own tandems.

Scottie Scheffler/Ben Griffin

I’d want a solid player guiding a rookie. Of course, you wouldn’t want your top player being burdened by a stumbling newbie either. Ben Griffin has shown lots of potential this year and would probably perform well when paired with the world number one.

Patrick Cantlay/Justin Thomas

If passion can win matches, then this pair might win 4 matches over the weekend. Justin Thomas lives for team golf, and Patrick Cantlay is the perfect foil, the “villain” to Team Europe’s heroic Rory McIlroy. Cantlay gets under the skin, and Thomas pumps up the crowds. This could be a great pairing for Bethpage.

Morikawa/Shauffele

These easygoing California kids should work well together. Both are major champions and strong iron players, which should serve them well on a demanding course like Bethpage Black.

Bryson DeChambeau/Cameron Young

These guys should provide the firepower for the team. Both long off the tee, they could potentially muscle their way around Bethpage and the competition. Bryson would surely draw support from the crowds, and a rookie like Cameron Young could feed off of that to calm his newcomer nerves.

Team USA has the potential, but can they deliver? That’s a big question mark for a team with several Ryder Cup rookies.