Over the weekend, the 2025 Ryder Cup was held at Bethpage Black on Long Island in New York. In most years, that wouldn’t be a big topic of discussion for us here at Tar Heel Blog, but this year was different,
as former UNC golfer Ben Griffin was selected for Team USA for their biannual faceoff against Team Europe. On the whole, things went pretty poorly for the US squad, but Griffin acquitted himself decently enough as he nearly helped them pull off a notable comeback.
The big story surrounding this year’s Ryder Cup was probably the crowd, the actions of some members of which somewhat marred proceedings. On the course, the Europeans dominated the first two days, which allowed them to fend off a late charge from the US on Sunday, winning the event 15-13.
For his part, Griffin won his singles match on Sunday, defeating Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark by one hole. By that point, Europe had already gotten the 14 points they needed to at least tie the cup, which would’ve allowed them as holders to retain it. (The score after Griffin won his match was 14-12 in favor of Europe.) However, the fact that the US came as close as they did was a minor miracle, considering they went into Sunday trailing 11.5-4.5.
In those opening two days, US captain Keegan Bradley only actually selected Griffin to play one match. On Friday, he teamed with Bryson DeChambeau in a four ball match. They lost their match to the European duo of Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, although they were one of the closer US loses in the opening two days, as the match went down to the final hole. With the US trailing so much throughout the first two days, Bradley likely relied more on the veteran players than the rookie Griffin, but it was a strategy that clearly didn’t work, considering that the US put themselves in a hole they couldn’t overcome despite their comeback on Sunday.
Griffin himself is just 29 years old, and 2025 has been a breakout year for him as he has won twice on the PGA Tour and finished high in several other events, including in the top 10 of two different majors. There’s plenty of hope that he could make repeat appearances for Team USA at Ryder Cups in the future. His next chance will be in 2027, when the event goes back across the pond and will be held at Adare Manor in Limerick, Ireland. Considering what happened over the weekend, it’s hard to see the US managing to bounce back and win that one, but including Griffin, the talent is there. We shall see.
