FARMINGDALE, N.Y — After Friday’s action in he 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, multiple players and captain Keegan Bradley said, “They just made more putts.” It was a common theme after the loss in Rome two years ago, too, but as the U.S. faces a 11½-4½ deficit going into Sunday Singles at Bethpage Black after another dominant showing Saturday from the visitors, a big reason of it it exactly that: the Europeans have dominated on the greens.
Eight of the top nine players in Strokes Gained: Putting, after two days of play are Europeans, with Justin Rose leading the bunch at +4.88 despite playing only two matches. Cameron Young is the only American in the top nine, and Scottie Scheffler is next on the list, gaining strokes on the greens (albiet +0.12) while going 0-4 to begin, only the second player in the event’s history to do that.
In addition to Rose, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre and Rory McIlroy round out the Euro bunch who are dominating on the greens. Tommy Fleetwood, who leads all players in total Strokes Gained and has been a thorn in the Americans’ side all week, is actually losing strokes with the flat stick despite being 4-0.
In the European preparation, captain Luke Donald saw one stat that stood out to him.
“We saw some stats about Bethpage where putting inside 6 feet had a little bit more relevance than most weeks,” Donald said. “But no, these guys are just, when it comes to their preparation, I leave that to them. We give them a guide to the course and some of the demands and some of the things that have proven to be successful in past tournaments here.
“But you know, these guys are 12 very able guys that know how to prepare and get ready. Certainly I’m not going to take credit for that. That is more about their grit and their determination to hole those putts more than anything.”
The hot putters have led Europe to take a historic lead into Sunday, the largest since the 28-point format was introduced in 1979.
“The greens are not where we wanted,” U.S. captain Keegan Bradley said. “They are super soft. The greens are great. They roll great. But you’re actually — you’re actually better off out of the rough to a bunch of these flags, a bunch of these pins. You know, sometimes when I would see our guys in the right rough, I would radio back, ‘that’s actually going to be great. You need it out of the rough so it doesn’t spin off the green.’
“I’ve never seen Bethpage greens play this soft ever. Even when we’ve played here and it’s rained, this is something that I’ve never seen. Chip shots are spinning backwards.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Are the Europeans really just making more putts in the Ryder Cup?
