- Players from both Team USA and Team Europe are anticipating an intense and loud crowd for the 2025 Ryder Cup in New York.
- The home team has won the last five Ryder Cups, highlighting the significant advantage of a supportive crowd.
- American players hope to use the energy from the home crowd to their advantage, with Collin Morikawa saying he hopes Friday is ‘absolute chaos.’
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Tommy Fleetwood walked up the 16th fairway with his three practice partners Wednesday, less than 48 hours before the 2025 Ryder Cup began, and turned around when a spectator called his name.
“Hey Tommy!” the fan yelled. “Nice hair!”
The 2025 PGA Tour champion responded with a smile and thumbs-up. Everyone in the surrounding area laughed. It was an interaction emblematic of the pre-competition days at the biennial tournament – a gentle ribbing by the home-crowd spectator and a gesture of good-naturedness from the player.
Golfers receive on-course support from their fans, but that’s rooting for an individual. Being part of a team changes the crowd’s importance, Fleetwood said.
“That energy, that passion and that home team environment is something that plays such a big part in the Ryder Cup, and I think you have to embrace that, enjoy it, and look forward to it, even when you’re the away team.”
By Friday morning, however, that friendly tune from the American-heavy crowd in suburban New York – where the locals are frustrated by their winless football teams, stressed about their baseball teams’ playoff races and prepared to provide a home-field advantage for Team USA – will change.
“I hope Friday is just absolute chaos,” two-time major champion Collin Morikawa from the U.S. said. “I’m all for it. I think it feeds into who we are … we want it. Like, we want to use that to our advantage.”
The stadium setup of the first hole will ignite an intense atmosphere from the jump. Bryson DeChambeau tested that out Wednesday by hyping up the gathered crowd at the first tee before his group started their practice session. Justin Thomas brought a youngster out to walk with the group on the fourth fairway, where players signed autographs for the kid to celebrate his birthday; the gallery behind the ropes started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’
The proximity of the 16th, 17th and 18th greens should make for some overlapping roars should matches go down to the wire simultaneously.
The last five Ryder Cups have been claimed by the home team, proving the importance of having a favorable crowd. Europe won that last “road” Ryder Cup, at Medinah outside of Chicago in 2012, when they succeeded in silencing the natives with a stunning Sunday session.
Justin Rose, who along with Rory McIlroy, was part of Team Europe then as they are in 2025, said he expects the crowd at Bethpage to have a similar feel to the one he experienced 13 years ago.
“I think the scale of the Ryder Cup seems to have really kind of kicked on massively in the last decade. So I feel like each occasion is getting more and more intense,” he said, “which is a lot of fun, obviously.”
Although fans travel to the Ryder Cup from all over the world, American Patrick Cantlay said New York fans have a reputation to uphold this weekend.
“I think it’s going to be an added benefit for our team with how loud it can be,” he said, “and what a great environment we’re going to be able to get to play in.”
The native New Yorker on the U.S. squad, Cameron Young – who grew up in New York’s northern suburbs (rather than the Eastern ones on Long Island) – described his people as ‘very intense.’
‘They love to win,’ Young said. ‘They love their teams when they win. I think that is what gets a group like this going.’
Europe practiced with virtual-reality headsets to simulate the hostile environs and at the behest of captain Luke Donald. The chirping is to be expected, Europe’s Ludvig Åberg said.
“It’s that passion that the Ryder Cup brings out that you don’t necessarily see in a normal tournament,” Åberg said. “That’s why we all love it. That’s why we all think it’s the best tournament in the world.”
If things go awry for the American side, Justin Thomas isn’t expecting the fans to take it easy on the home team. But there’s still a line not to be crossed regardless of who’s winning or losing.
“Look, if we’re not playing well and you’re talking trash about us, we probably deserve it,” Thomas said. “But if you start getting into the loved ones, that’s I think when everybody starts really kind of getting a little bit chippy.”
For Xander Schauffele, whether it’s the pub songs that make their way to the course when the tournament is in Europe or the classic “U-S-A!” chants in the States, “I love all of it, to be completely honest.”
The most similar atmosphere to a Ryder Cup reigning U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun has played in, he said, is the always-boisterous Phoenix Open. Spaun inquired with Schauffele about the feeling of playing in a Ryder Cup earlier this week.
“I just told (Spaun) that there’s nothing more rewarding than to be at home and to make a putt to win a hole, or to even tie a hole if you’re in a bad spot,” Schauffele said, “and get these fans going.
“And get them going quickly.”
Because a fast start Friday – crowd sure to be roaring – could be the difference between the U.S. taking back the Ryder Cup trophy, or having the unfortunate distinction of being the first team to lose the tournament at home in more than a decade.