As the golfing season begins to draw to a close, all of our attention will turn to the 2025 Ryder Cup, and Team Europe now appears to have pinned down its 12-man squad for the tournament.
This weekend, golf fans have been keeping an eye on the Tour Championship as Tommy Fleetwood chases his first Tour victory, with Patrick Cantlay currently standing in his way.
Seeing one of USA’s best players going toe-to-toe with one of Europe’s finest has got us salivating at the prospect of similar contests to come at Bethpage Black in just over a month’s time for the Ryder Cup.
You’d be hard pressed to find many neutrals who, when looking at the potential teams for both sides, would bet against another win for Europe this year. And now, it seems to be glaringly obvious who will make that team for the big event after the way this weekend has played out.
Europe’s Ryder Cup team predicted by Dan Rapaport
Prior to this weekend, five of the six automatic qualification spots for Team Europe were determined, with Rory McIlroy, Bob MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Tyrrell Hatton all confirmed.
The sixth and final spot was still up for grabs, with Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, and Rasmus Hojgaard all in the running.
Interestingly, despite Hojgaard not featuring in the Tour Championship, the Dane has just secured his spot at the Ryder Cup thanks to his successful finish at the British Masters this weekend.
Discussing the way the rest of Team Europe could and should shape up, Dan Rapaport offered his predictions for the line-up, saying he would “be stunned” if the team wasn’t made up of the six players named above, plus Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Sepp Straka, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Shane Lowry.
While Matt Wallace is currently in the top 12 for the European Ryder Cup rankings, there is a strong belief that Rahm will get the nod instead despite failing to win an event on the LIV Golf Tour this season.
If Luke Donald does go for that 12-man roster, it will see 11 of the team that triumphed at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in 2023 returning to action once more. The only change would be Nicolai Hojgaard swapping out for his twin brother, Rasmus.
Team USA is far from certain ahead of Ryder Cup 2025
That very strong European team could not be more of a contrast to the uncertain and unfancied Team USA right now.
While the six automatic qualifiers have been settled (Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English, and Bryson DeChambeau), the six captain picks are far from obvious at this stage.
All the talk for Team USA is around whether captain Keegan Bradley should also play as part of the 12-man line-up. Rapaport certainly thinks Bradley should pick himself, and it’s hard to argue given his current form.
Outside of his own status as captain and player, Bradley will also need to look at the likes of Justin Thomas, Ben Griffin, Brian Harman, and Cameron Young to make up team.
Either way, this much change and uncertainty with just a month to go until the tournament surely cannot be conducive to an effective assault from Team USA.
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