Ryder Cup Captaining 101

There are innumerable Dos and Don’ts to which a Ryder Cup captain should adhere, both in the lead-up to the competition and during the action. Don’t, for example, show up to Rome only five days in advance of the 2023 Ryder Cup with a team full of golfers who haven’t taken competitive reps in over a month. Decision-making like that won’t fare well in the court of public opinion (or on the golf course).

Leveraging lessons learned in recent history, especially from the savvy European side, here are a few Dos and Don’ts of Ryder Cup captaining that can serve as a rubric for grading each captain after the event, independent of the result. 

Do: Get every player on the golf course during the first day of competition. You might as well find out who is playing well as quickly as possible. Some golfers won’t have their A-games, and some may not react well to a high-intensity environment. Get everybody acclimated to the atmosphere and find out who is in form and comfortable as quickly as possible. 

Over the last four editions of the Ryder Cup, 94 of the 96 total participants teed it up in either the foursomes or fourballs session on Day 1. The two lone exceptions are Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Wood, who the Europeans benched until Day 2 in 2016. Unless a player is sick or injured, I doubt Team Europe would repeat the decision to omit any golfers entirely from the lineup on Friday. 

If you only plan to use a player once before Sunday singles, why not use them on Day 1? They could surprise you and come out hot, perhaps becoming a viable option to play an additional match than you had planned. 

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Don’t: Roster your weakest links in foursomes. A strong partner can mask poor play in fourballs. However, if you’re playing badly in foursomes, you’ll eliminate your team from having any chance at earning a point. 

In 2023, the two clear weakest links on Team Europe were Nicolai Hojgaard and Robert MacIntyre. Both players were rostered on Day 1 but only in fourballs. Europe did not risk playing either golfer in foursomes. In fact, Europe played the same eight golfers in both foursomes sessions. Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose, two European players near the bottom of the roster in 2023, did not appear in foursomes, either. 

Do: Mix skillsets. Pairing players with different skill sets can result in assembling a supergolfer, so to speak. The benefit is clear in a format like foursomes, where an elite wedge player can complement a long driver. Varied skill sets are also beneficial in fourballs, too, as birdieing different holes from your partner is much more valuable than birdieing the same holes. 

Within a similar vein, do strategize which golfer tees off on the even-numbered holes versus odd-numbered holes in foursomes to play to the strengths of each golfer. That being said, Bethpage Black presents a much more balanced array of shots to each golfer than some setups in the past, so the order off the tee won’t be as important compared to other team events.

Don’t: Mix golf balls. To the extent possible, try to avoid pairing players in foursomes who use golf balls with starkly different characteristics. On Tuesday morning, Russell Henley highlighted the importance of golf ball fit, referencing that he and Tony Finau would’ve been a suitable foursomes pairing at last year’s Presidents Cup if not for major differences in their golf balls.

We saw the pairing of Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, both of whom play a Srixon Z-Star XV golf ball, in both foursomes sessions in 2023. It’s a pairing we could see again in 2025, though I’m curious if Europe has concerns about Straka’s recent form and decides against rostering him in foursomes. 

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Do: Manage energy levels. Competing in a Ryder Cup is exhausting, both mentally and physically. Fortunately, each team has been thoughtful about their travel, arriving early to Long Island to allow ample time to prepare. 

Still, it is a grueling few days of competition, so managing energy levels shouldn’t be overlooked. At the 2023 Ryder Cup, captain Luke Donald let Jon Rahm rest on Saturday afternoon, explaining that he wanted Rahm to be well-rested to lead the team off on Sunday morning. Scottie Scheffler, who also teed off first on Sunday in 2023, did not play the Saturday afternoon session for Team USA, either. 

Is resting Saturday afternoon imperative to having success in the first tee time on Sunday? I suspect not. Is the concept of managing energy levels important, though? Absolutely. 

Don’t: Catch players off guard when you announce their partner. Golfers are extremely routine-oriented. They want to know who they are playing with well ahead of their matches, and they don’t want to be thrown out of rhythm when you surprise them with a pairing. This is especially crucial in foursomes, as you can imagine the stress imposed on a player if they have to rapidly adjust to a different model of golf ball on the fly. 

Golfers perform best when they are comfortable. Transparent communication and thoughtful preparation help avoid chaotic situations with last-minute surprises or adjustments. Paul Azinger understood this when he developed the ultimately successful pod system for the 2008 Ryder Cup, assigning players to four-player pods with their potential playing partners. 

I recommend looking at the overlap between pairings at the BMW PGA Championship, the Procore Championship, and Ryder Cup practice rounds. The continuity suggests that each side is well-prepared and communicative about who is playing with whom. 

While this exercise may not be comprehensive of everything a captain must consider when devising pairings for each session, most decisions set forth by the captains should make sense within the context of the above framework. Small deviations from the points listed above are to be expected, but I’d be surprised and dubious if many captains' decisions veer too far from the set of criteria listed.