An event unlike any other took turns like never before.

Fans and experts alike spent much of the early part of this week bloviating about how the 2025 Ryder Cup would likely come down to a putt at 5 p.m. Sunday. And yet, no one could have ever imagined that THIS is how we would get to that outcome.

At 4:55 p.m. Sunday, the U.S. squad that had been so historically shellacked had gone on a run of singles wins that yielded a narrow but rapidly developing path to unfathomable history. Between the prognostications actually morphing into prophecy, we experienced the wildest and most extreme momentum swings in the history of the competition.

When the USA and Europe squads finally began swinging their clubs for real at Bethpage Black, the results were all pointing to a European road blowout the likes of which we have rarely seen. I was on the phone Friday and Saturday, playing sports therapist to my 84-year-old father, Barry Wood, a diehard fan and scratch golfer back in his heyday. I listened like a late-night bartender as I ingested his fervor and consoled his disgust at how his favorite golfers cowered from the moment.

We were all lining up our poisoned pens and digital daggers to hold Captain Keegan Bradley and his charges accountable for a national embarrassment. Here’s the reality of it all. We got steamrolled over the first 48 hours. We drowned in toxic jingoism, and that is something that the PGA of America won’t escape even with the U.S. golfers’ near-historic comeback in the singles.

A Bear Becomes a Bull on Long Island

In the end, the best found their equilibrium on Sunday.

There’s a reason this was just the third Ryder Cup won on foreign soil since the turn of the century. Just 38 miles from Wall Street, there was an instantaneous market correction on the course that made the final score respectable. A furious rally that had the media tent at Bethpage Black popping Tums and chugging Pepto-Bismol in anticipation of a pivot that would blow up their deadlines.

Alas, it was not to be. The 20 minutes of “can you believe this” texting across the country (and a spurt of enthusiasm that likely bailed NBC out of an abysmal ratings narrative) ended.

Shortly after 5:15 p.m., Shane Lowry – because, of course, Shane Lowry – drained a 6-footer on the 18th hole to score a half point in a tie with Russell Henley and secure Team Europe retaining the Cup. Luke Donald, who, with the back-to-back wins as captain, became only the second European captain to win both on home and foreign soil, said:

“It was the most stressful 12 hours of my life. Shout out to the Americans and Keegan and his captaincy. We knew they’d be tough, [but] I didn’t think they’d be this tough on Sunday. They fought so hard. Respect to them.”

I’m the NFL Content Chief for ES, so I’ll use my daily vernacular. The 15-13 final was not garbage-time touchdowns to make the final score look more appealing than it truly was. This was not empty-calorie yardage and points that only fantasy owners and point-spread bettors appreciate.

This was the emergence of the heart we U.S. fans were desperate to see from our squad. I’ve watched Full Swing obsessively. I see how the Ryder Cup is in the Europeans’ soul and DNA.

When Donald talked about his players not needing to be paid to play in this tourney, it wasn’t salacious bulletin board material. It was facts. These gents, they do it for love of the game – and even if there have been internal discussions of paying them to represent Europe, they had too much respect for the greater good to take it public (yet).

Eccentuating the Positives For the U.S. Squad

Oh sure, Bradley is still going to face the scrutiny about matchups. However, I can assure you that his personal trauma will far outlast the short-term Monday morning quarterbacking.

Bradley made a selfless decision to focus on the captaincy because this trophy mattered to him on more of a European level than I’ve seen since the days of Palmer and Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tom Kite, and more recently, Lanny Wadkins and Payne Stewart.

I watched the aforementioned Full Swing that captured Bradley’s sadness for not being picked to the team two years ago. His pure class in fervently rooting his team on in 2023 ultimately led to the closed-door-meeting support that led to his captaincy.

I’m going to let the true experts break down the stats and the pairings and the woulda-couldas. The drama is what hooks me into any and every sport, from marble rolling to the NFL. This was the golf version of the NFL Redzone’s “Witching Hour,” where wins become losses and losses become wins.

It was thrilling to watch World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler get off the Ryder Cup schneid, scoring his first win in nine Cup matches since 2021. The unshakeable demeanor that made him impenetrable on PGA Tour Sundays was back on this Ryder Cup Sunday in a thrilling one-up battle with Rory McIlroy. And Scheffler couldn’t hide his emotion after escaping an unsavory 0-5 record at Bethpage.

He’s taken too much weight on his shoulders in this team format. Moment after moment over the last two Cups, you could see the heft of the bigger picture seep into Scheffler’s swings in make-it-or-break-it moments.

I’m happy that he’s not the ultimate scapegoat behind this loss.

I was giddy to see the sleeper stud story of 2025, U.S. Open champ J.J. Spaun, rebound from a four-ball loss alongside Scheffler on Friday to score vital down-to-the-wire points on Saturday and Sunday.

Attention, PGA of America: It’s Time To Lead

Ultimately, I’m going to use the last portion of this gift space that the ES golf crew has bestowed on me to make a plea.

There has been a rise in venom and a sharp decline in civility since the LIV Golf-PGA Tour split. And yes, while the LIV revolt led to necessary change and financial growth across the sport, the divide has ultimately resulted in a massive loss for fans.

Sports is our escape from the real world – and for me specifically, from the rise of alarming hatred that has become the preferred currency of many in recent times. The Ryder Cup has been the golf fan’s escape from the divisiveness of the PGA-LIV narrative.

It has been about the joy of the game. The signature fan overexuberance that has made the event increasingly special over the past two decades had boundaries as fans rooted passionately for their side.

We crossed a line this weekend, one that the PGA of America willingly promoted by allowing F bombs and personal slurs to be slung at the Europeans from the first tee off without repercussion for the fans spreading the hatred.

It peaked as a PGA of America-contracted MC led a first-tee “F— you, Rory” chant that brought emotions from already-salty U.S. fans reeling from an epic deficit to a dangerous boil.

Thankfully, that MC was fired ahead of Sunday’s action, but the PGA of America should be ashamed for playing a leading role in stirring such abhorrence.

I’m grateful that the ultimate story of this Ryder Cup returned and ended with a showcase of the magic of the game and the players who capture our imagination with this event every two years.

The passion is real. The top pros who fuel national pride make this event a bucket list must for every sports fan, not just golf fanatics.

The first tee on Friday and every shot throughout Ryder Cup weekend (seriously, just how good was this recovery from Rory?) is an energy beyond any I’ve ever witnessed in the myriad of Super Bowls, March Madness, and World Series I’ve covered in my 35-year career in sports.

I’m hoping that energy is what perseveres beyond the low points of fandom at Bethpage. We have work to do to make this a true rivalry again, as the Europeans now own nine titles in the last 12 showdowns.

Sunday’s rally wasn’t just a salvaging of pride. I saw it as a vital restoration of civility and soul that will be at the core of the U.S. rise from the ashes in Ireland in 2027.