While home advantage has become so important in the Ryder Cup, there is no question that USA had the stronger lineup on paper heading into the 2023 event in Rome.
Six of the US players found themselves inside the top 10 in the world rankings, while Rickie Fowler was their lowest ranked player at 25. Meanwhile, Europe boasted four of the world’s top 10, and Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard all found themselves outside the top 30. Aberg and Hojgaard were 80 and 82 respectively.
Both teams also boasted four rookies. So Zach Johnson would have probably felt that the US has rarely had a better chance to win on European soil since their last victory across the Atlantic back in 1993.
But of course, that is not how the 2023 Ryder Cup played out. Europe absolutely dominated the first three sessions, with US not winning a single match on Friday. A 3-1 fightback on Saturday afternoon still left USA five points behind heading into the singles.
Edoardo Molinari reveals the prediction he made before the 2023 Ryder Cup
In fairness, the Americans did manage to set up a tense finish, with Europe only getting across the line in the penultimate match in the lineup, when Tommy Fleetwood beat Fowler. The final result would end 16.5-11.5.
Edoardo Molinari was the statistician amongst Luke Donald‘s vice-captains at Marco Simone. It is no surprise that he has already been confirmed for the same role ahead of Bethpage in 2025. And speaking on Fried Egg Golf after being asked to give a prediction for next year, Molinari suggested that he was not far off calling it correctly in Italy.
“I’ll tell you this, before the 2023 Ryder Cup, I remember Luke asked me, ‘what’s your prediction?’ And I said to him, I might still have it, I’m going to write it in a small piece of paper, I’m going to keep it in my pocket and I’m going to show it to you on the Sunday night when we finish, and I missed by half a point,” he said.
The opportunity for Luke Donald at Bethpage
Remarkably, it was, score-wise, the joint-closest Ryder Cup since the Miracle at Medinah 12 years ago. Europe were looking to make amends after their record defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021, while Paris was extremely one-sided after Thomas Bjorn’s side dominated the singles.
That obviously does not bode too well for the Europeans heading to New York. It is going to be a passionate crowd at Bethpage, and the players who featured in Rome are likely to be desperate to prove a point.
It will certainly give a much better idea of how complete Donald’s captaincy truly is. He was rightly being lauded after what happened in Italy, with the players quickly expressing how they wanted Donald to stay on for 2025.
If he can go and oversee a victory in New York, it would, without a question, place the Englishman amongst the very best captains the event has ever seen.
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