The Ryder Cup sneaks up with Luke Donald, who has returned as captain, leading Team Europe in an event held at Beth Page Black in New York with the goal of securing a rare away victory over Team USA.
It was a great year for Europeans. At the standout moments of Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory and career grand slam, Tommy Fleetwood managed to win the Tour Championship and overcome his heartache to secure the FedEx Cup in his first PGA Tour victory.
Team USA’s Keegan Bradley resisted the opportunity to choose himself as play captain, adding Justin Thomas, Colin Morakawa, Patrick Cantrey, Ben Griffin, Sam Burns and Cameron Young as wild cards to complete the terrifying home side.
Donald’s side remains stable with many stubborn people from Rome returning, including John Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Ludwig Aberg and Victor Hofland.
We’ll see who’s red hot and likely will be called by Donald for Bethpage Black.
Current Team Europe rankings for the 2025 Ryder Cup
The top six players are automatically qualified for the team. Accurate ranking as of August 25th
- 1. RoryMcIlroy (NIR) 3489.21 – Qualifications
- 2. Robert Macintyre (SCO) 1709.94- Qualifications
- 3. Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 1622.11 – Qualifications
- 4. Justin Rose (1) 1545.72 – Qualifications
- 5. Rasmus Hojgaard (den) 1283.56- Qualifications
- 6. TyrrellHatton (Eng) 1279.33- Qualifications
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- 7. Shane Laurie (IRE) 1275.51
- 8. SeppStraka (aut) 1264.27
- 9. Ludvig Aberg (SWE) 1140.44
- 10. ViktorHovland (nor) 1031.34
- 11. MattFitzpatrick (Eng) 899.53
- 12. Matt Wallace (ENG) 881.12
- 13. ThomasDetry (BEL) 817.19
- 14. MarcoMoney (Eng) 810.38
- 15. Aaron Ly (ENG) 754.86
- 16. Jordan Smith (ENG) 738.84
- 17. Harry Hall (ENG) 703.38
- 18. Nikolai Hojad (den) 681.26
- 19. Niklas Norgaard (den) 651.10
- 20. John Parry (1) 643.75
2025 Ryder Cup Team Europe
Qualifications
Rory McIlroy
Masters champion. Career Grand Slam. McIlroy finally did it and seemed ready to enter this year’s Ryder Cup with the new aura around him, but the year since meeting his Augusta Dream had continued to lose shape, inadequate drivers and strange bust-ups with the media. He’s still up again, but with a T6 at the Travelers Championship, a T2 at the Scotland Open and a T7 at the Royal Portrush home open. His Masters victory at Augusta saw another victory in the Player Championship in the explosive start of the year in the three-hole playoffs, and Europe will need him to fall in the heart of the team, perhaps playing all five sessions again and pulling off a stunning away victory. His emotions spilled in Rome in 2023, but his record was perfect, making it 4-1 in three days. It requires repetition.
Bob McIntyre
Since the last Ryder Cup, he has integrated himself as a truly world-class player and appears to be stubborn for the next decade. The near miss at the BMW Championship was now qualifying after being based on JJ Spaun’s sublime weekend performance at the US Open, which was primarily ramp-stretched as the four-shot lead slipped. He is currently ranked 8th in the world rankings. This is thanks to another major top ten at the open opening and runner-up at the Caves Valley Golf Club. A stunning 2024, he partnered with sports hero Andy Murray at the BMW Championship Proam after McIntyre claimed a breakthrough victory on the PGA Tour (Canadian Open) and the home championship (Scottish Open). Under Justin Rose’s guidance, and under the potentially reformed partnership at Beth Page Black, the appearance of the Maiden Cup in the Ryder Cup proved Scott’s spark, and after two and a half points from three matches, there were memories in Rome.
Tommy Fleetwood
It has steadily improved year-over-year, and is now the world’s top ten permanent fixture, and finally won its nasty first PGA Tour despite a series of devastating near misses. Fleetwood won the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup showed a sense of camaraderie among team European players, while Rose and Laurie waited to celebrate their friends and teammates. Almost forgotten by now, there is a huge loss to Keegan Bradley at the Travelers Championship – when appearing on the 18th on Sunday, a compelling Ryder Cup story can be presented if both players face it. At the FedEx St. Jude Championship, he had more heartache when he led by drilling several holes alone, and missed the playoffs with Rose and J.J. Spanning on a stroke with a bogey 17. He also notched the T5 at the Genesis Open in February, but won his seventh DP World Tour at the Dubai Invitational in January 2024, winning a silver medal at the Parisian Games that summer. He is now like a veteran of the Ryder Cup, joining the team for the fourth time at Beth Page, earning three points from his four matches in Rome. Two of them came from a frightening foursome partnership with McIlroy. Will Fleetwood Mac meet again in New York?
Justin Rose
The runner-up at Augusta locked him in for Beth Page, but after playing off a second heartache at the Masters, he saw him being kicked out by McIlroy. His response to that painful loss was generally classy as he truly congratulated his Ryder Cup teammates. He then produced a miraculous Sunday Back 9 and showed that by beating JJ Spahn in the seductive playoffs to win the FedEx St. Jude Championship, he still deserves attention by winning the 12th PGA Tour title of his charming career to appear in the competition just two weeks before the end of the Ryder Cup qualifying period, the 12th PGA Tour title of his charming career. This still remains at the top of his game, and that experience proves to be essential for Donald, as he ultimately scored 1.5 points in Rome felt like a race against Rose’s father’s Time.
Tyrrell Hutton
One liv player against the system. Hutton flourished despite the barriers between the Rebel Tour and the OWGR accreditation event. In fact, the fiery Briton has proven efficient and ruthless in the events of choice played when the world ranking points are on the line, collecting victory in the Alfred Dunhill Link Championship and Hea Road by Desert Classic and automatically qualifying for Beth Page, but is now within the top 15 of the world by Data Golf Rankings, and has approached pinching the US open before finishing the T4 as JJ Span secured a surprising victory. Another major top 20 followed in Portrush. A rock for the team, Hatton appears to be in his prime at the perfect time to thrive in the Beth Page Black cauldron.
Rasmus hojgaard
If the above 11 men are on the plane except for shock, the fight for the team’s 12th and final spots appears to be wide open, and will likely be determined by the final victory of competitors or Donald’s gut feel. Rasmus hojgaard may be someone who owns it by almost default, sitting just outside the 8th automatic qualification spot, almost by default. He sped up the list to win two promising finishes on the early 2025 PGA Tour (T12 at Phoenix Open and T22 at Pebble Beach). The highlight before that was a scintillation victory at the Irish Open in September 2024. There, he attacked Loripug McIlroy at 65 on Sunday and won by stroke. Find out his distance from the tee (currently safe to the top 10 PGA Tour this season). This may be useful in Bethpage.
rock
Ludvig Aberg
The second PGA Tour title at Genesis Invitational in February confirmed Aberg’s Aura as one of the greatest talents of the generation that neglected the victory of the first signature event. His short one aside, Aberg did well with Torrey Pines’ Tee-to-Green and Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy at +0.62 and +0.71 in four rounds respectively. Next? Of course, major. The fourth time he missed the cut in both the US PGA and the US opens, but he couldn’t make the weekend with the previous six majors – a memorable second straight top 10 at the Masters and a solid T23 at the open opening. If he can return to his best, he may cause a rivalry with Schaeffler, and the 9&7 victory in Rome provides a compelling storyline if they meet again on Beth Page.
Viktor Hovland
A slight drop from the magical summer of 2023, when he won the monument, BMW Championship and Tour Championship, became the third youngest FedEx Cup winner in history before scoring 3.5 points in every session of Europe’s dominant victory Rome. Going down the rabbit hole in swing mechanics, 2024 was a season that was largely lost to Norwegian high standards, but he is once again on the right track. He won with an unexpected victory at Valspar in March, continuing the dominant European year on the PGA Tour, looking solid, including a T3 at the US Open. A neck injury caused a final withdrawal at the Travelers Championship, but that has not been a problem since. Europe needs him to be a charm for him to win at Beth Page, so pencil him for at least four sessions.
Shane Laurie
His scintillation victory at the 2019 Open was a concern, and as he returned to the Northern Ireland course this July to create the T40, he was only one solo victory worldwide (2022 BMW PGA Championship) worldwide (2022 BMW PGA Championship) was a concern, and in combination with his good friend Rory McIlroy, he won the Zurich Classic in the New Orleans pair in April 2024 and McIlroy runner-up at Pebble Beach in February. Shows from Cognizant Classic (T11), Arnold Palmer Invitational (7th), The Valspar (T8), The Truist Championship (T2, where T2 tied the lead towards the final day), and Canadian Open (T13) are not far away, but he doesn’t want the past few months at a time. Still, he is Donald’s basic work and can match multiple players on the team. Honestly, he only returned a 1-1-1 record in Rome when considering his experience and popularity among the teams.
John Larm
Entering 2025, the concern between Team Europe and Luke Donald was that this was not the same as John Rahm, who at one point was the closest player to Scotty Schaeffler. Of the top 50 in the world, the Spaniard has desperately needed a response in the majors this year, and he has it. The trio with top 15 finishes (T14, T8, T7) in the first three majors of the season and open T34 were impressive, returning to third place in the Datagolf rankings. Eligibility for the Ryder Cup is not an issue despite being present in Liv Golf, so he is a guaranteed captain pick, T2 at Liv Chicago and narrowly missed Dean Burmester in the playoffs, so it counts as a good preparation before Beth Page.
Probably on a team
Cep Straca
The 2023 captain’s pick, the Austrian formed a close bond with Shane Laurie, splitting foursome before dropping nail bitters into Justin Thomas and singles, making his debut 1-2-0 with the Ryder Cup. fine. Perhaps ironically, it was Raleigh, and Thomas was a beat hit to win the Torist Championship in May. Entering 2025 as one of the most likely men in the 2023 cohort, he missed Bethpage’s location, especially after the overwhelming end of 2024, but earlier this year it was a runaway freight train in the second half that locked down his location once again. Truist was his fourth PGA Tour title, and the third came when he held back the man Thomas again in January to win the American Express in California. It also exhibits almost smooth consistency at Player Championships, FedEx St. Jude Championships, Scottish Open, Memorial, RBC Heritage, Arnold Permark Lassic, Cognizant Classic, Phoenix Open, Pebble Beach Proam and Sentry. The only blot is this year’s disastrous major record. This saw him missed the cut in each of the first three and posted an open, unexplained T52. Perhaps there is a slight weight in Donald’s mind before Beth Page.
Matt Fitzpatrick
The 2022 US Open Champion pedigree should mean he isn’t too far from the “rock” category, but Fitzpatrick has to fix his undeniable form loss with a good summer result, and he has remained rich in his first tournament victory since 2023, but he mostly did it. The US PGA T8 was the first flash of green shoots of previous recovery, the top 20 at the Travelers Championship, the T8S at the Rocket Classic and Wyndham Championship, the T4 at the Scotland Open and most importantly, the open T4 continued trending. However, the gloomy Ryder Cup record on paper (1–7–0) opposes him. He may have slightly missed a putt on a single with Roma’s Max Homa and changed the story. His length from the tee should allow him to compete in Beth Page Black.
In competition
Nikolai Whaugard
Nikolai Huigard, twin brother of Rasmus, a Scandinavian rookie who has not been injured in Europe since 2023, has scored half the points from his three matches in Rome. He showed a flash of his unquestionable quality and his youth throughout the weekend, and the experience defending him in good place for future Ryder Cup appearances. Now, with the 2025 PGA Tour card, Dane will have to dodge competition from his brother Rasmus and other candidates.
Harry Hall
It is admirable to make his name on the other side of the pond and reach the tour championship. That may be too little, but it’s too late for the British who wear flat caps. He came in sixth in the BMW Championship and 17th in the rankings, but the 28-year-old suggested he had no deep conversations with Ryder Cup officials. Statistically, the best putter in the world since May should build on this run to secure Adare Manor’s location in two years. A victory in East Lake? Something strange happened.
Outsiders
Matt Wallace
Wallace has begun to regain his form, where he returned to his fiery hot streak in 2018, winning three European tour titles and a top 20 finish in the six-month US PGA Championship. He at one point began the qualifying period for the 2025 Ryder Cup, about 23 years old, and like freight trains. The top ten at the British Masters, a fantastic European Masters victory sealing off the first DP World Tour title of six years, the credible T12 at the star-studded BMW PGA Championship has become an impressive September 2024 for the 35-year-old British. Increased opportunities for the PGA Tour in 2025 just keeps his despair at making a Ryder Cup team a secret. Despite his credible major performances in the form of a T17 at the US PGA and a T23 at the US Open, it is never the case that he will not pinch the 12th spot on Donald’s side. After a second finish tied up with the Omega Europe master, he broke in tears, showing what this competition meant to him. His time may still come to Adale Manor.
Aaron Rye
The top 20 players in the world in September 2024 were not many of the non-team sports. However, the incredible consistency peaked with the Maiden’s victory on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship, taking command of him to win his Ryder Cup debut. It was a T23 at the Tour Championship and three cuts in the 2024 majors, including a T19 at Pinehurst at the US Open, suggesting that Rye is in good fashion and most likely would appear to shake things up in Donald’s hands. It wasn’t actually kicked in 2025 and won another victory in the coming weeks. Otherwise, it would be difficult to steal the 12th spot from other candidates.
Thomas Detley
The Belgian enters his 30s, and appears to be rising to the top 25 of the world, climbing to the top 25 of the world, and appearing to rise, as he wins at the Phoenix Open in February 2025, wins on his first PGA Tour and enters the heart of the conversation of the Ryder Cup. Since 2024, he has become a consistent performer in US tournaments, if not epic, missing two cuts from March to September, sprinkling with his regular top 30 finish, swinging T2 at the Houston Open, T4 at the PGA Championship, T14 at the US Open and T9 at the Olympics. The victory at Phoenix was the next step, but he had to continue his upward trajectory to win a spot with the Donald team in New York, instead showing little in the past few months.
Predicted the European team for the 2025 Ryder Cup
- Rory McIlroy
- Bob McIntyre
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Justin Rose
- Rasmus Hojgaard
- Tyrrell Hutton
- Shane Laurie
- Viktor Hovland
- Ludvig Aberg
- Cep Straca
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- John Larm
This would be roughly the same as the one that beat the United States in Rome. Rasmus hojgaard may see the only change from Rome by removing tension to some degree, locking the automatic spot and swapping for his brother Nikolai Huigard.
