Telfer's Thoughts 3.9.25

The golfing year is slowly winding down.

The men’s Major’s season was for all intents and purposes the Scheffler/McIlroy road show - Scheffler grabbing two and McIlroy at last getting to try on the Augusta winner’s green jacket.

The women’s game offers up five Majors every year. This year Aussie golfers Min Jee Lee and Grace Kim won two of the five, another two went to two Japanese golfers, Miyu Yamashita and Mao Saigo, with the fifth going to Maja Stark from Sweden.

Still left is the DP World Race to Dubai season Championship with our two leading Kiwis on this Tour, Kazuma Kobori and Daniel Hillier, both assured of a start in this staggeringly rich tour finale. Despite the thrills and joys the Major season has provided, the best in 2025 may still be yet to come. The 2025 Ryder Cup gets underway at the Bethpage Black course in Farmingdale New York on 25th September. Both teams have named their 12 players, with no real surprises. The European team for example has named 11 of the team who won the Cup two years ago in Rome. It looks to me to be one of the strongest European teams ever, on paper anyway. And yes, there’s no shortage of rockstar celebrity power in the American ranks, headed by the world’s leading golfer, Scottie Scheffler. An indication of the depth in American golf these days is that two of the American stars from recent Ryder Cup clashes, Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, have both missed out on selection. Instead in comes rookie Ben Griffen who has had a stellar year to date, winning twice on the USPGA Tour and now with a world ranking of 17. The other newcomer is Cameron Young, ranked 20th in the world currently. He has also won this year on the US Tour as well as placed 4th at the US Open.

Fans from the Big Apple are commonly considered the loudest, the most vocal and the most nauseatingly patriotic of sports fans anywhere. Heaven help the European team.

How many times can we bear to hear that awful chant “USA USA” with its odious Trumpian political overtones?

Every putt the Europeans miss, every poor shot one of them plays will send Uncle Tom’s fans into various states of unbridled joy and neurotic madness. Fans will leave all traces of fair play and quietness way behind at New York’s Grand Central station.

The two starting line-ups have been named in the last week or so and on paper it looks a pretty even scrap, although a closer scrutiny of the 24 contestants suggests Team USA will start as favourites.

Team USA has 10 of its 12 players ranked inside the world’s top 20 players. Europe is not too far behind with 7 in the top 20. Breaking down the top ten, again it’s the Americans that fare best - they occupy 5 of the world’s top 10 spots, Europe just 3 in Rory McIlroy, Robert McIntyre and Tommy Fleetwood.

The Americans will also take heart from the fact that they have won three of the last four Ryder Cups played on US soil. Offsetting that to some extent is that all 12 European players are very experienced with all American conditions and courses.

I suspect the team that putts best will win this thing but don’t ask me who that will be.