The Ryder Cup never fails to deliver a raft of talking points, with the 2025 event no different as Europe managed to win despite emerging victorious in just one of the 11 singles matches at Bethpage.
The 2025 Ryder Cup saw Europe open up their biggest ever lead after two days after dominating in New York. Brandel Chamblee compared Europe’s performance to Tiger Woods at the 2000 US Open.
Ultimately, they just about got across the line. Luke Donald almost paid the price for using his three most important players in all five sessions.
It is hard to imagine that the golfing world will see a Ryder Cup like this past week again anytime soon.
With that, it should come as no surprise that there were plenty of intriguing statistics to emerge from the event in New York. And here, with the help of Data Golf, is a look at five of the most surprising.
Five surprising statistics from the 2025 Ryder Cup, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler involved
The PGA Tour’s best putter has a nightmare on the greens
Sam Burns gave Keegan Bradley good reason to pick him for the Ryder Cup. He was in contention on Sunday at the US Open. And crucially, he is statistically the best putter on the PGA Tour this year.
However, Burns was the third worst putter at Bethpage. Only Justin Thomas and Rasmus Hojgaard performed worse with the flat stick than Burns. It was somewhat fitting then that he tied his singles match with Robert MacIntyre after struggling on the 18th green.
| Player | Strokes gained putting |
| Justin Thomas | -2.20 |
| Rasmus Hojgaard | -1.64 |
| Sam Burns | -1.62 |
| Xander Schauffele | -1.57 |
| J.J. Spaun | -1.41 |
At the other end of the list, it was Sepp Straka who led the way. The Austrian led the likes of Justin Rose and Shane Lowry.
Ben Griffin fails to shine on his Ryder Cup debut
Ben Griffin seemed to send a message to Bradley with his performance at the Procore Championship. Having already won twice this year, Griffin really should have triumphed in Napa before losing out to Scottie Scheffler.
A poor performance on Friday afternoon alongside Bryson DeChambeau proved to be Griffin’s only match before the singles.
He still ended up losing 4.38 shots with his approach play. Only Straka and Burns fared worse.
Rory McIlroy not at his best with the driver in his hand
Bradley admitted making a mistake in how Bethpage was set up. Cutting the rough back denied golf fans the chance to see two of the best drivers in the game really battle it out, in Rory McIlroy and DeChambeau.
The setup would have benefitted an American team 10 years ago, but it was the Europeans who capitalised. In fact, McIlroy ended up losing 0.3 shots off the tee over the week. Just four of his teammates performed worse.
Russell Henley was not as poor as some may assume
No player seemed to suffer more because of the setup than Russell Henley. Suddenly, the need for accuracy was eliminated with Bethpage nowhere near as brutal as it should have been.
He ended the week without a win. And it was his match on Sunday which saw Europe reach 14 points and ensure that they would at least retain the trophy.
Nevertheless, Henley deserves real credit. He was sixth for total strokes gained between the two teams. The two players directly below him were McIlroy and Jon Rahm.
Scottie Scheffler was the second worst player in one category
The 2025 season has shown that there are now no weaknesses in Scottie Scheffler’s game. He is inside the top 20 in every single strokes gained category – and first off the tee and approaching the green.
That was what made his Ryder Cup performance all the more shocking. Scheffler lost his first four matches in New York before going on to beat a jaded McIlroy on Sunday.
As it turns out, only Hojgaard performed worse around the green than Scheffler across the week, with the world number one losing 1.77 strokes in that category.
The wait for Scheffler to find the magic formula in the Ryder Cup continues.
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