Had Team USA come back and won the 2025 Ryder Cup, Bryson DeChambeau fighting from 5 down to earn half a point against Matthew Fitzpatrick would have been heralded as one of the major turning points for Keegan Bradley’s side.
There was so much intrigue surrounding Bryson DeChambeau heading into his Ryder Cup return. The American has become one of the most popular players on the planet since impressing alongside Scottie Scheffler at Whistling Straits in 2021.
Many expected DeChambeau to play a key role, with Bradley confirming at The Open Championship that DeChambeau would be on his team, several weeks before his qualification was official.
Unfortunately, despite his Sunday heroics against Matthew Fitzpatrick, it proved to be something of an anticlimax. DeChambeau ended the week with just 1.5 points from five matches.
Bryson DeChambeau makes a piece of history upon his Ryder Cup return at Bethpage Black
How Keegan Bradley was going to use DeChambeau prompted all sorts of debate in the weeks leading into Bethpage. His only previous partners in the Ryder Cup had been Scheffler, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. DeChambeau’s defeat alongside Mickelson summed up a miserable time at Le Golf National.
There were encouraging words from Paul Azinger. Having spoken with Bradley, Azinger said he liked what he had in store for DeChambeau.
Based on what happened in New York, it is hard to imagine that the skipper stuck to the plan.
DeChambeau was sent out in the very first match alongside Justin Thomas. The pair lost 4&3 to Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.
His partnership with Ben Griffin on Friday afternoon also proved to be unsuccessful, with Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood winning 1 up. Griffin would not play again until Sunday.
DeChambeau’s only win of the week came on Saturday morning, with the two-time US Open champion and Cameron Young beating Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg 4&2.
But Fleetwood and Rose emerged victorious again in the fourth session, with Scheffler alongside DeChambeau in a partnership Bradley clearly hoped would act as a catalyst for a comeback.
With that, DeChambeau ended up playing with four different players. It appeared to be an indication that Bradley did decide to throw many of his plans out of the window once Europe took charge of the event.
Quite incredibly, you would have to go back to 1985 for the last time a player on either side had four different partners in the same Ryder Cup.
On that occasion, it was Bernhard Langer who had a different teammate alongside him in every session over the first two days.
Remarkably, there have been 101 occasions where a player has been used five times in a single Ryder Cup since the 1985 event concluded.
And in that time, just one – DeChambeau – has been given four different partners.
Bryson DeChambeau remains an enigma for Team USA after a mixed Ryder Cup
It is clearly not the reason that Team USA lost the Ryder Cup. The 32-year-old was far from their worst performer at Bethpage. And DeChambeau was lauded by his teammates for the lengths he had gone to over recent months.
However, this definitely speaks to the idea that getting the best out of DeChambeau is not a straightforward task, despite his immense talent. It would have obviously been a very different story had he contributed more points.
DeChambeau probably would have been delighted had he been told before last month’s event that he was going to do something not seen in the Ryder Cup in four decades.
But he may not have been so happy once he learned what he was actually entering Ryder Cup folklore for.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
