Inside the 2025 Ryder Cup with Team Europe Vice Captain Edoardo Molinari

Edoardo “Dodo” Molinari has been a part of three Ryder Cups for Team Europe, one as a player (2010) and two as a vice captain (2023, 2025). Team Europe won all three. In the last two Ryder Cups, Molinari has proven a valuable weapon for the European side, leveraging his analytical expertise to advise on decisions ranging from captain’s picks to optimal pairings. 

After a 15-13 Team Europe victory at Bethpage last month, we sat down to debrief the successful week in New York. 

When we last spoke about a year ago, you had said you would text me a prediction of the final score of the 2025 Ryder Cup and that I could reveal it after the event. You correctly predicted a 15-13 European win and also included in the text that you might get a tattoo if you were correct. Have you gotten the tattoo yet or is that still coming?

I don't remember anything about the tattoo. I will have to check on that. Really?

You did. You said you might. 

Yeah, I might.

A couple of weeks removed from the Ryder Cup, are there any scenes that you find yourself replaying in your head of the win?

There are a few. The first morning didn't go as well as Rome, but it was a very good start. We were not scared but we were probably fearing falling behind early because with the crowds and everything that was going on, it would have been an extremely difficult week. After that first morning, I thought we're in the game here and we have a great chance.

And then Sunday afternoon ended up well for us, but for at least a good hour and a half, we were not very comfortable in our position.

Europe led 11.5-4.5 entering Sunday singles and it ended up getting pretty close there. Was there any point on Sunday where you thought it might actually flip?

Well, we got off to a good start on Sunday. The only issue was that though we were up in a lot of matches, mostly everyone was like 1 up, apart from (Matt Fitzpatrick). All the games looked like they were going to come down to the last few holes. Plus our players were a bit tired after a long week and having to deal with everything they had to deal with. 

I was following Fitzy and then I moved up to Justin Rose’s game when he was playing Nos. 11 and 12. Right at that time, we started losing a few holes here and there and all of a sudden almost all the matches went from being 1 up to either tied or 1 down. That’s a very uncomfortable feeling. You almost feel like the ground is shaking a bit and falling away from your feet.

You mentioned how tired your players were come Sunday. With the current intensity and stakes of the Ryder Cup, are Friday and Saturday too long? Have we packed too much golf into the first two days of the Ryder Cup versus stretching it out a little more?

I don't think so. The Ryder Cup is great because of those Fridays and Saturdays. There is a lot of action going on. If you only had four games on one day, I think it would be extremely difficult for the spectators to watch. Also there is more strategy involved now. “Are we going to play our players, or are we going to rest someone?” If it was only four games per day, I have a feeling you might end up playing the same players over and over again.

One of the beauties of the Ryder Cup is that you have to sit players and you have to play others. It’s part of the competition. No, I wouldn't change it.

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Obviously so much preparation goes into the Ryder Cup. Was there anything about the week that surprised you?

I would say the course setup – that definitely surprised me, in a good way. We were kind of hoping that the Americans were going to go with the usual setup of no rough and make it a birdie-fest because we felt like we were making more birdies than they were. We have some very long hitters who were very happy seeing no rough at all.

Even someone like Rory (McIlroy). He can play any course in the world, but if he could pick and choose a golf course, it would be very long, not much rough, and softish greens, so that even if he's in the rough, he can go for the pins. And this year, he's had the best putting year of his career.

When we went there for the practice trip, we were kind of hoping that it was going to be what we saw. And then by the time Monday of the Ryder Cup came, they cut down the rough even more, which was again very surprising, in a very good way.

When you're preparing for the Ryder Cup and you're not 100% sure what the golf course is going to look like, when do you actually know what the golf course setup is going to be for the week? Is it not until you get on site the week of the Ryder Cup? Can you explain that process from the perspective of the away team?

As an away team, it's always difficult. They are going to play games a little bit and obviously they knew that we were going to visit the course for a couple of days to practice. The greens were definitely slower than how they were in the Ryder Cup. There was a bit more rough too, but you're always trying to guess a little bit at what they're going to do because they cannot grow the rough four inches in a week, but they can definitely cut it down. They can speed up the greens or they can make them firmer or softer. 

Even on that practice trip it looked like it was going to be a lower-scoring Bethpage than ever in the past. We have data from previous majors and PGA Tour events, and the golf course never played anywhere near as easy as it was playing. 

But you still have to guess a little bit. We changed a couple of things, especially in the order of the foursomes, based on the setup. The way the golf course was set up, there wasn't much of a premium for hitting fairways. At that point, you just wanted your longest player to tee off on the odds, regardless of whether he was hitting the fairway or missing the fairway. You just wanted to be as far down as possible. So you have to be ready to adapt and change a little bit. 

There is not much they can change with setup in a week. But when we saw the setup on Monday of the prior week, we thought it was going to be a birdie-fest and we needed to be ready to make putts and lots of birdies.

Odds versus evens became a big talking point, especially after an American foursomes team flipped their order between the first session and their second session. How significant did you evaluate the distance advantage to be on the odd-numbered holes versus the evens for this particular Ryder Cup?

It was quite significant. It just depends on the pairing. For example, one of our pairings was Viktor Hovland and Bob MacIntyre. There isn’t much of a distance difference between the two. We’d been chatting with them pretty much every day in the days leading up to the event and decided they could basically pick and choose which order they wanted to tee off. 

In the end, they decided to have Bob tee off first on the first day, which I thought was maybe marginally better but not much of a difference. Then, after playing one day, they decided to swap because of the wind direction and certain tee shots that Bob didn't like and Viktor did like. So they swapped for the next day and they won. 

For certain combinations, there wasn’t much of a difference. For other combinations like Rory and Tommy (Fleetwood), it would have been a massive difference if Tommy teed off on the odds. That was always a no-brainer. Rory knew that he was going to tee off on the odds two weeks before.

When you're evaluating something like the distance advantage on particular holes, do you assign more weight to the holes that you know for a fact you're going to play versus the 18th hole, for example, which the match may not even reach? Or do you not factor that in?

Yes, a little bit. You look at it a little bit. Especially in foursomes where if you start by playing well, very few matches make it to the last hole. Quite often foursomes matches finish on 16, 17, or even 15. More I would say you look at what you want to achieve in the first few holes, where do you want to putt for birdie in the first few holes.

That’s very marginal, but it's something that we look at.

Justin Rose had a great but pretty inconsistent 2025 season. Can you talk about how you viewed Justin Rose's role entering Ryder Cup week?

Justin has this incredible skill to turn on his game almost at will. In 2024, he didn't play well at all for a guy of his level. This year, he had a couple of good tournaments early on. He had a great Masters, nearly won it, and lost in a playoff. Then from the Masters onwards, he had a couple of small injuries and didn’t play great.

He didn’t really show up again until the Scottish Open and at that point, we needed to see something more from Justin otherwise it was going to be difficult to pick someone who only played well through April. I think Luke had a bit of a chat with him and then all of a sudden he finishes [sixth] at the Scottish Open and plays well at the Open.

Then a few weeks later he wins one of the elevated events, which really surprised us in a good way. He can have some weeks where he is completely off, then all of a sudden out of the blue, he just jumps out and plays great. 

The Ryder Cup was the same thing. If you look at Strokes Gained by round, he was our best player of the 12, which is truly incredible. He’s older than I am, and you wouldn’t say the course setup necessarily favored him, but all of sudden he showed up in the practice trip and he had a 178-180 mph ball speed, which he hasn't had in months. 

There is something very fascinating about him and how he's able to find his game when he really needs it. On Saturday afternoon when he played probably the biggest fourballs match of his career, up against Scottie and Bryson, he just kept making birdies, which I find just incredible.

So are you a believer in golfers being able to turn it on for big events and is it something you factor in when deploying Justin Rose at the Ryder Cup? 

In general I'm not, but with Justin I have to admit that there's something going on to where he's able to somehow turn it on at will. It’s just incredible because he's probably the only player I know that if you tell him, “We need you for these 18 holes,” all of a sudden he shoots 65 or 66.

Is there anything you learned or changed your mind on after the experience of this Ryder Cup?

We learned a few things. On Saturday night, I would say it was almost over. And I think the Americans felt pretty much the same way. But the Ryder Cup is a very strange animal. It doesn't take much to flip completely. It happened at Medinah years ago, and it almost happened this time. 

That's a great lesson to be learned that it doesn’t matter where you are and what the score looks like. You just have to fight for every single point. Looking back now at how big Fitzy and Hatton’s point was on Saturday afternoon in that last game, they won the last hole to win the game. If they lose that hole, all of a sudden the score is 10.5-5.5, which is still a massive lead. But considering what happened on Sunday, that point was crazy important.

And so many other little things. It’s amazing when you look back at the end of the week, how many small moments – a half a point here, half a point there – they just add up. 

What was your reaction to seeing the Collin Morikawa-Harris English pairing for a second time?

I would say I was very surprised the second time. The first time, if you want to play everyone on the first day, you have to make sacrifices somewhere. In match play anything can happen. The differences between these guys are not that big, so they could have easily gone and played well and won the game.

With all due respect, the way they played on Friday morning, I would have probably put out a different foursomes group. If the same thing happened to us, I think we would have put out a different group regardless of who it is. If you don't play very well and you get beaten pretty badly, then we might still play the guys, but maybe play them in a different format or with a different partner.

If we were down 3-1, I don't think you would see the exact same lineups from us on the next day.

What are your thoughts generally on pairing two of your best players together in fourballs?

You're putting me in a difficult spot now (laughs). I think it's far from ideal, especially in fourballs. If you really want to do it, I would probably do it in foursomes. Fourballs is a bit of a lottery, almost. The two worst players on a team could beat the two best players on the other team.

It’s a very risky move. It gave us a very big target to aim for. I felt like Tommy and Justin went out on Saturday and knew that they had almost nothing to lose. All of a sudden, if you go up in that game, it's massive. It's a big confidence boost for the rest of our team. And it was a big hit to the U.S. as well.

Scottie Scheffler was not his typical self at this Ryder Cup. He did not play to his standard, went 1-4 in his matches, and he's now 0-4 in his Ryder Cup foursomes career. Two of the best stroke-play golfers of the 21st century in Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods have struggled significantly in the Ryder Cup relative to expectations. What is your potential explanation for why we might see drastically different performances in the Ryder Cup than 72-hole stroke play from these players? 

I think it goes back a little bit to the Scottie Scheffler-Bryson DeChambeau pairing in fourballs. When you're the best player in the world by such a big margin, all of a sudden you have a big target on your back. Over 18 holes in match play, any one of these players can beat anyone. 

So you go out knowing that your chance to win is not the same as over 72 holes in stroke play. If a guy has a good day on the greens or makes a chip at the right time, all of a sudden you're in danger of losing the game. I think it's a very difficult spot for them to play. 

I would also add that it's a very difficult spot for someone to play with them. Russell Henley is a fantastic player, but you could see on Friday morning and a little bit even on Saturday, but especially on Friday, he wasn't playing like his usual self. I think part of it deep down is he’s probably thinking, “I'm paired with the best player in the world and we're losing badly. If we're losing, it's not really his fault, it's more my fault.” And when you start looking at it that way, I think it's quite difficult for their playing partners. 

Tiger had many different playing partners and had a losing record in the Ryder Cup. Maybe Steve Stricker was the partner that worked out the best, but even they didn't have a fantastic record. 

On the other hand, it just frees up some of our players. If you look historically at how Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia putted in their careers compared to how they putted in Ryder Cups, that's the other side of the coin. When you are the underdog and you've got nothing to lose, it's pretty easy to go out and play 18 holes. And if you win, it's great. If you don't, it's normal.

I want to talk a little bit about the crowd at Bethpage. The notion that the Americans face the same type of crowd behavior in Europe as the Europeans face here in America. Based on your experience, is that true, Dodo?

Unfortunately not. The loudness and the noise are the same. And that's fine. There is nothing wrong with shouting or screaming when it’s time to do it. 

I would say what was very different is the amount of swearing at the players and heckling at the players. The swearing against you, your family, your kids, your daughter, your parents, whatever. 

In Rome, I think that the most insulting thing that happened was the people waving their hats to Patrick Cantlay. That’s two very different things. Also in New York, a lot of times players had to back off. We told players specifically to try to keep going and never back away no matter what happens because it would just make the crowds worse.

I was out with Rory and Shane (Lowry) on Saturday afternoon, which was probably the worst part of the Ryder Cup, the worst crowd behavior I’ve ever seen on a golf course. Between the fourth green all the way through the eighth, it was almost unplayable. On the sixth green, Rory must have waited five or six minutes to hit his putt. I think that's a bit too much. You can shout and scream and say whatever you want, but not when the players are addressing the ball. 

In Europe, once the players are addressing the ball, everyone goes quiet. I had two Ryder Cup experiences at home – one as a player, one as a vice captain – and not once did an American player have to back off a shot because someone shouted in the backswing or while he was taking address. But it is the way it is.

I walked all 18 with that group on Saturday afternoon, and I felt like the worst of it was the sixth hole and especially the sixth green. I believe I saw you on the sixth green speaking with the walking official as that scene with Rory was unfolding. What was the conversation between you and the official? 

I was just asking him what we're going to do because on that green, it was clearly unplayable. Rory tried to address the ball a couple of times and the crowd started shouting every single time. The official was trying to call for more marshals, more police. But I think when it gets that bad, it’s almost like the crowd somehow has to police themselves.

The sad thing is that there were probably 5,000 people around that green and because three or four idiots started shouting, then all of a sudden everyone looked bad. It just takes two or three people around a green to make it look very bad. 

Everyone else was absolutely fantastic and we got a lot of great support as well. In the practice rounds, we were signing and taking pictures and talking to the kids, and the amount of messages I received was overwhelming. A lot of people I had never met before were thanking us for being kind, for being open and so on. Again, 99% of people were fantastic, but unfortunately there are always a few that make it look very, very bad.

The Telegraph reported that Europe was prepared to halt play if some of the crowd behavior did not stop. Is that true and how close did we get to that point?

No, that was never discussed. It was never talked about. That's not true at all. We were just trying our best not to irritate the crowds even more and just tried to be humble, tried not to react to them, which I thought we did a great job for a day and a half. When you're exposed to that for 12 hours a day, eventually it gets to you. Obviously some players reacted, but I think that’s just a normal human reaction. It would have been impossible for anyone not to react for three straight days to what was going on.

Paul McGinley mentioned that rookies historically struggle on the road. Do you agree that rookies struggle more on the road than at home? If so, do you view home Ryder Cups as more of an opportunity to test future Ryder Cuppers versus playing somebody for the first time at an away Ryder Cup?

Yes, definitely. As you know, we look at a lot of different things and one of the things that we looked at for this Ryder Cup was how our rookies play in the States. They have a decent record at home and, unfortunately, they have a big-time losing record away. Unless someone is particularly young and strong mentally playing away is a very difficult thing, at least for our rookies.

It is much easier to play at home. In Rome, we had a few rookies and they all performed pretty well. That’s something that aligned for us in New York and we got quite lucky to have basically the same team as we had in Rome. We only had one rookie, Rasmus (Hojgaard), who had been on site at the Ryder Cup in Rome.

It's not like at an away Ryder Cup we’re going to pick no rookies at all because if you have someone who is playing really well, it's difficult to leave him at home. But this time, the team was almost the same and sometimes it's just written.

Some people would look at the data from this past Ryder Cup and conclude that the Americans stood toe-to-toe with the Europeans from tee to green, but Europe significantly out-putted the Americans. Therefore, the Europeans didn't dominate nearly as much as the scoreboard might suggest. How random is putting? 

It is very random. I had – and I think everyone else had – the Americans as slightly better putters across the team. But putting is very random. You could have someone who is not a good putter beat Matthew Fitzpatrick or Sam Burns in a putting contest. It’s very difficult for a less-skilled player to beat Scottie Scheffler in a ball-striking test. That’s almost never going to happen. 

Putting has a lot more randomness, which again, I don't want to dig into too much, but when you are the better team and you make the course kind of a putting contest, then I feel like you're handing a big gift to the opposition. You’re bringing everyone to the same level and then it becomes a bit of a lottery and we were good and lucky enough to win the putting game this time.

Is putting under a significant amount of pressure a completely different animal than putting when you’re out of contention at a tournament? If so, could you argue that putting at the Ryder Cup might be less random and may bring some of the elite putters more to the top?  

Putting is obviously different if you have the putt that Shane had on the last green on Sunday compared to the same putt on a Thursday morning in a PGA Tour event. That's definitely a different kind of pressure. But that's true for all parts of the game. Certain players in Ryder Cup history, they somehow elevate themselves in that environment. Other players who have looked very good before the Ryder Cup, all of a sudden they couldn't play at the same level in the Ryder Cup. 

I think it's more the overall attitude and mindset of the player and how they react to that situation. Even for these elite players, I don’t think contending in a major is really the same kind of pressure. This is non-stop. 

Padraig Harrington said it nicely a few years ago. He said playing in the Ryder Cup is like playing the last three holes of a major for three days in a row for 36 holes a day. You get to the end of the week and you're absolutely knackered. Some players love that environment, other players don't. I think that's why, when you look at rookies, it's very difficult to know how they're going to play until you actually see them in that environment. 

I've seen it myself in some practice rounds where you see players playing unbelievably and then come Friday morning their game is nowhere to be seen. And other players like Jon (Rahm), Jon never looks too good in the practice round. Then Friday morning comes and it's the usual Jon at the Ryder Cup. It's crazy how he can turn on his game with the pressure and the adrenaline and the hype.

Do you put any stock in how a player looks during the practice rounds?

Very, very little to be honest. We always have a couple of options for the first afternoon and then the next morning and so on. But we always look at how players look the few weeks leading into the Ryder Cup and then that Friday morning and Friday afternoon. We don’t look at the practice round unless someone looks very, very bad. But even if they look bad, you still want to see how they play in a tournament.

Personally, I don't believe practice rounds, especially in the Ryder Cup, tell you anything about what is going to happen.

The Envelope Rule came under fire since it was invoked on Sunday due to a Viktor Hovland injury. I don't think anyone is questioning whether or not it was a real injury, but would you support a rule change in future captain's agreements that stipulated a 13th replacement player waiting in the wings in the event that a golfer could not compete on Sunday?

I think the Envelope Rule is the lesser of two evils. If you had to keep a 13th guy around, the 13th guy would have played two times in the last 30 years? So both teams would have to bring a guy, have the guy play practice rounds and sit around all week. I don't think that's a great idea. 

The other idea I heard is that if someone is injured, you just lose your point. That just opens the door to putting out one of your injured players in one of the first few games to try and get one of the best players from the other team out as well, which means that potentially Scottie or Bryson wouldn't have played on Sunday. 

The rule came into play this time, but I don't think it should be changed. It doesn't happen very often. You have to consider that players would love to go out and play on Sunday. If Viktor had any chance of swinging a club, he would have gone out and maybe lost a point or maybe won a point, we don't know. But if he had even a 5% chance to finish the round, he would have done it. 

He tried. He came to the course, he was in the gym, and he couldn't even swing one of those clubs that are in the gym. It's a shame because everyone would have liked to see 12 singles matches on Sunday. But again, it has only happened two times in 30-something years. I would keep it as it is.

How would you feel about a rule change where captains could alternate putting out their pairings like at the Presidents Cup so that the opposing captain would have the opportunity to match particular pairings? I think a lot of fans would want to see that. 

I see your point but I'm more of a traditionalist. The Ryder Cup is so good for a number of reasons. There is strategy involved and a bit of gamesmanship. I think it's just good the way it is.

How familiar are you with Adare Manor and what should people expect from that golf course in a couple years?

Adare Manor is a fantastic resort and golf course. It's definitely the best-manicured golf course we have in Europe. Golf course-wise, right now it has wide fairways. It’s a big, long golf course. It has elevated greens with run-off areas everywhere. In two years' time, we'll see what it looks like. 

They're willing to do pretty much anything that we might need. I don't know if I will be involved or if someone else will be involved in that, but it has the potential to be an amazing Ryder Cup. The scenery, the course, the resort, everything is incredible. Conditions will be amazing. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, but I think it's two weeks earlier than normal, so that should help.

It’s a golf course that’s very flexible. There are a lot of tees and you can move the fairway lines.  There is a lot of stuff you can do and it's going to be fun.

A lot of names are being floated around for the next European Ryder Cup captain at Adare Manor, likely somebody with recent experience in the locker room. Is that a role you are interested in at some point in your career?

I don't think I will ever be a Ryder Cup captain. To be honest, I don't have the CV to do it. I don't have the charisma to do it either, at least that's what I feel. I'm very happy with my role in the last two. 

If someone else is the captain or if Luke Donald is captain again and they want me along for the ride, I'll do it as many times as they want me to do it. But to be honest, I think there are much better candidates to be Ryder Cup captain in the future.

Final question: what will be your favorite lasting memory from the 2025 Ryder Cup?

My favorite lasting memory is arriving to the hotel on the Sunday night before the Ryder Cup, and I found a great note on my bed written by Luke with some very nice words. I have it here in my studio and it's something that I will cherish for a long, long time. It just means a lot. 

Obviously there are fantastic memories, but that moment was unexpected. I read the note and I almost had tears in my eyes. It really meant a lot. 

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