Peter Finch has predicted the four players he believes are likely to be the leading points scorers at the Ryder Cup this month, with the opening tee shot at Bethpage Black edging ever closer.
With Luke Donald announcing his six captain’s picks on Monday, golf fans now know the 24 players who will contest the 2025 Ryder Cup in New York. Europe will defend their crown with 11 of the players who were victorious at Marco Simone two years ago.
There are plenty of question marks over the American side. Keegan Bradley was in an impossible position and decided to take the gamble of not picking himself as a player.
The USA team will include four rookies, while previous stalwarts such as Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay needed captain’s picks to make the team.
Peter Finch predicts the leading points scorers on both Ryder Cup teams
The Ryder Cup always throws up a number of surprises when it comes to the leading points scorers. Only Rory McIlroy won more points than Max Homa in Rome in 2023.
Meanwhile, Thomas Pieters was the leading scorer on either side when Europe were comfortably beaten at Hazeltine in 2016.
And it seems that Peter Finch could see a couple of players outperform expectations at Bethpage as he predicted the two leading points scorers on either side on The Rough Cut Golf Podcast.
“I think Fleetwood is going to be great this Ryder Cup. He’s actually in form, loves the event and he’s just coming off a great win at the Tour Championship. Imagine how excited he’s going to be to play this, so I’m going to go Fleetwood,” he said.
“I’m going to go Bobby Mac as well, just because he’s an incredible putter. I think it’s between him and Hatton, because Hatton’s a great player, but when it comes to the Ryder Cup, it is such a putting comp, so I’m going to go Fleetwood – because he’s just in great form – and MacIntyre.
“On the US side to be the best performers, I’m going to go DeChambeau, just because you imagine he’s going to be massively up for it. He could go either way really quickly, but the way the US normally sets up courses, you can just smash it long, not a huge amount of rough, I’ll probably go DeChambeau.
“And then, I’ve just got a feeling about Henley. Because if you think about Russell Henley, you don’t think of him having this huge ego, and normally what that means is they will pair Henley with someone who doesn’t quite fit, who you think ‘who are they going to pair him with?’ ‘We’re going to put him with Russell because he’ll get on with anyone’. And because he’s such an amazing putter as well, whoever they put him with is going to be a good player, and he’s a good putter.
“So I’m going to go DeChambeau and Henley.”
The Ryder Cup records of Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre and Bryson DeChambeau
Admittedly, it will not be a shock to see Tommy Fleetwood perform. He was a catalyst for Europe recovering from a slow start in Paris in 2018 and ended the week with four points from five matches.
He also only lost one match in Rome and went on to seal the decisive point for Luke Donald’s men.
Robert MacIntyre definitely grew into the matches in Rome after initially looking shaky on Friday. He ended up winning 2.5 points from three matches. He has since become a two-time winner on the PGA Tour.
| Player | Appearances | Points won | Overall record |
| Tommy Fleetwood | 3 | 8 | 7-3-2 |
| Robert MacIntyre | 1 | 2.5 | 2-0-1 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | 2 | 2.5 | 2-3-1 |
Bryson DeChambeau is set to make his return after missing out in 2023. He had a nightmare in 2018 as he lost all three of his matches at Le Golf National. But he was outstanding three years later, going unbeaten alongside rookie Scottie Scheffler.
Henley is still awaiting the chance to make his Ryder Cup debut. However, his Presidents Cup performance last year was extremely encouraging – not least because he looked to be an ideal partner for the world number one.
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