18 controversial moments you forgot happened at 2023 Ryder Cup

Two years ago, at the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, a controversy brewed. 

A day before the event, a reporter had asked European captain Luke Donald this:

“Sorry to hit you with this on the eve of the tournament, but following exhaustive investigations, it’s come to our attention you’ve got an American wife. And the phrase ‘sleeping with the enemy’ comes to mind. So I just wonder how tricky is it going to be this week for you? I wonder if you talk in your sleep.”

“Not tricky at all,” Donald said. “My wife’s parents were born in Greece. She has a lot of strong European roots, and my number one fan. There’s quite a few guys on our team that have U.S. wives. It’s really not a problem. They are 100 percent behind us.”

“She wants Europe to win?”

“Of course.”

And that was that. From there, the biennial event played on without any heat. 

LOL. Not quite. 

As we approach the next playing of the Ryder Cup, we offer 18 controversial moments from the 2023 event. Some you may remember. Some you may not. Each will include a brief introduction, some words from the story this site wrote at the time, and the link to the article. 

We’ll go in order of occurrence. 

18. Keegan Bradley wasn’t selected 

Keegan Bradley wasn’t among six captain’s picks made by Zach Johnson, despite a spirited run and his fervor for the event. Selected instead were Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns and Rickie Fowler — and Bradley’s reaction was captured on Netflix’s “Full Swing” show.  

Wrote GOLF.com: 

Few players have been as vocal in confessing their desire to make this team as Bradley, who was on the squad in 2012 and 2014 but hasn’t made one since.

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“I think about the Ryder Cup every second I’m awake basically,” he said a couple of weeks ago at the BMW Championship. “My biggest thing right now is trying not to think about it while I’m playing because it’s important to me. I feel like I could bring some experience to the team. I would personally love to just be on a team with this younger group.”

The story can be found here. 

17. European Ryder Cup legends and LIV Golf pros were absent  

Absent from Team Europe were Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Martin Kaymer, Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell, who all were playing their golf with LIV Golf. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

On Wednesday morning at Marco Simone Golf Club, Rory McIlroy was asked a pointed question. McIlroy had been arguably the best player on those teams. Some of his best memories as a golfer came in those team rooms. But he’s been as anti-LIV as any top pro, which has left him in an awkward in-between.

“This week, of all weeks, do you actually miss guys like Sergio, Poulter, Westwood?”

McIlroy paused.

“I mean, it’s certainly a little strange not having them around,” he said. That wasn’t quite a “yes.”

The story can be found here. 

16. Brooks Koepka and the ‘false confidence’ quote 

During pre-Ryder Cup press conferences, Koepka had been asked this by the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson:

If the Ryder Cup came down to one match on the course to decide it, I suspect if you ask all 24 guys here if they want the ball, they’d say yes. How many of them do you think really mean it?

Koepka’s answer: 

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“Very few,” he said, eventually. “False confidence, I think.”

The GOLF.com story can be found here.

15. Wyndham Clark and the Rory McIlroy quote 

Wyndham Clark was feeling confident. Wrote GOLF.com:

On Golf Channel’s Golf Today, Clark had been asked how he would greet a singles matchup with McIlroy, and part of his response include this:

“I have the utmost respect for Rory — he is one of our great ambassadors of our game. He is obviously one of the best of all time and he is still going so he can be that. I have tons of respect for Rory and because of that respect, I also want to beat him. I like to think I am better than him and I want to prove that.”

And folks jumped on it. But it’s here where we’ll ask just this: Is he supposed to say he’s not better?

On Wednesday, Clark had a similar thought. 

“If I say I think he’s better than me and he’s going to beat me,” he said, “then I’m going to get ridiculed because people don’t think I have any self-belief; and then if I have self-belief, which I do in myself, people take it out of context either way, so it was kind of a tough question.” 

The story can be found here.

14. The U.S. was crushed in the opening session 

While most Americans were sleeping, the Euros raced to a 4-0 lead after the first session. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

Well, we hope your Thursday evening sleep was restful.

Because by the time you awoke on Friday morning, the Europeans had already commandeered control of the Ryder Cup.

It’s hard to say precisely when the blue wave crashed over the Americans in Friday morning’s alternate shot matches, but it didn’t take very long. By the time the first foursomes group — Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton vs. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns — crossed the ninth hole, the Europeans had claimed commanding leads in all four of the morning’s matches. By the time the morning was done, the Euros had claimed a clean sweep of the morning slate, holding their first 4-0 lead in the Ryder Cup’s 44-event history.

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The story can be found here. 

13. There were a lot of commercials 

Folks were upset by the commercials. Wrote GOLF.com:

The USA Network, responsible for covering the first 10-plus hours of the Ryder Cup on Friday, delivered an onslaught of advertisements to viewers in those opening few hours, enraging the golf internet and resurrecting the never-ending debate about the state of golf viewing in the U.S.

As the night inched toward dawn, things didn’t get much better. One by one, viewers logged online to voice their displeasure with the pace of the NBC-run telecast, the technical gaffes that preempted key moments in matches, the moments that weren’t shown at all, and, most pressingly, the overall number of advertisements shown.

The story can be found here. 

12. Koepka and the ‘child quote’

After Koepka and partner Scottie Scheffler lost a match to Jon Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard, Koepka singled out Rahm in a comment. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

When asked how he felt after the round, Koepka unloaded, saying, “I mean, I think me and Scottie [Scheffler] birdied, what did we say, 14, we birdied 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and then lost by two. So yeah. I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did. But, you know, it is what it is. Act like a child. But we’re adults. We move on.”

It’s unclear what specific incident, if any, Koepka is referring to, though Rahm is known to have a fiery demeanor and has shown frustration on the course in his career before.

The story can be found here. 

11. Odd pairings 

Were the pairings questionable during the morning session? Perhaps. Wrote GOLF.com:

Johnson had earned the criticism. He was the chief architect of a disastrous start to the Cup for the Americans, aligning some of the stranger foursomes pairings we’ve seen in recent Ryder Cup history. For the first several hours on Friday, he watched hopelessly as that octette of largely inexperienced Ryder Cuppers were swallowed up whole by a dominant group of Europeans, with only one of the Cup’s first four matches extending beyond the 16th hole. The Americans didn’t lead for a single hole, in a single match, until about an hour into Friday afternoon’s fourball pairings.

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The story can be found here. 

10. Team sickness? 

Were the Americans under the weather? Maybe. Wrote GOLF.com: 

After his Ryder Cup team had absorbed a historic first-day beating, U.S. captain Zach Johnson was left with the unenviable, some might say impossible, task of explaining what went wrong. When asked in particular whether he made any on-the-fly tweaks to his afternoon four-ball pairings after the U.S. was shut out in the morning foursomes session, Johnson gave a curious answer.  

“Well, we have contingencies and things of that nature based on a lot of things,” he said. “I would say that we’d love to have everything drawn out way, way ahead of time, but there’s certain things you cannot control, and we are trying to control the controllables in our team room, and I’ll leave it at that.”

“So you don’t want to answer?” a reporter said.

“No, not particularly,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is there’s been some unforeseen things that we’ve had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health. It’s not an excuse, because we have depth, but I’ll just say, I’m grateful we have a team doctor.”

The story can be found here. 

9. The 9-and-7 defeat 

On Saturday morning, Koepka and Scheffler lost 9 and 7 to Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, the worst 18-hole loss in Ryder Cup foursomes history.

Wrote GOLF.com:

Koepka and Scheffler, the presumptive American all-star pairing, shot a preposterous (and generous) alternate-shot score of seven-over par in just 11 holes together on Saturday morning, gift-wrapping another point to the European pairing of Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg. After a heart-pumping display of shotmaking in their fourball match against Rahm on Friday evening, the two golfers looked entirely out of their depth in alternate shot, hitting it all over the yard in a match that was never really close — and that ended on the 11th hole.

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The story can be found here. 

8. Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson talk  

During the Saturday afternoon matches, Spieth and Zach Johnson talked on the tee on the driveable par-4 16th hole, then Spieth swapped out his driver for a 3-wood — and he hit his ball into water and the Americans lost the match, 3 and 2. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

“I have no idea what that was,” said Hunter Mahan, the six-time PGA Tour winner, who also was on the world feed call. “I’m really confused on why we just pulled a 3-wood.” Mahan added: “I’m not sure I made myself clear how dumbfounded I am by that decision.”

NBC Sports’ analysts were just as mystified.  

“Zach Johnson, the first time we’ve ever seen him do anything like that,” Brad Faxon said of the captain’s decision to insert himself in the proceedings.

Added Faxon’s boothmate, Paul Azinger: “He’s three down with three to go. He really wants to make a 1, and he took a club he can’t come close to the front of the green with. I don’t understand it. Birdie’s not going to do much for you.”

The story can be found here. 

7. HatGate 

You probably remember this one. A report had surfaced that Patrick Cantlay believed players should be paid to play the Ryder Cup and that he was not going to wear a team hat to demonstrate his frustration — then Marco Simone fans started to wave their hats at him. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

The assembled media members went into overdrive chasing questions raised by the report. Some of it was difficult to parse. There’s only one locker room, after all. How far away could they have been sitting? Does a team room that exists for less than a week have enough time to fracture by Saturday morning? How does Cantlay feel about Ryder Cuppers not being paid? And what was up with the hat, anyway?!

In some ways, the specific details and their respective veracity were irrelevant to the assembled masses. To fans, Cantlay tends toward the unknowable and, to casuals, has gotten more attention for viral slow-play clips than consistent top-tier golf. In other words, he can be an easy target. The idea that an American villain was debasing the sanctity of the Ryder Cup out of personal greed? They could work with that.

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The story can be found here. 

6. The skirmish on the 18th green 

This was related to HatGate. After Cantlay holed a putt on the 18th green, Americans waved their hats, including Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava — and chaos followed. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

For the first time since the first balls had gone in the air on Friday, the Americans had a tangible piece of hope. But the celebration lasted only seconds until it was nearly interrupted by a fistfight.

The first offender was Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava, who had been the first American to rip his hat from his head in celebration. He stood at the center of the green for a few long seconds after Cantlay’s putt sunk, waving back toward the Americans on the far side of the green. Normally that wouldn’t have been an issue, but McIlroy was surveying a birdie putt of his own roughly five feet to LaCava’s right to halve the match.

McIlroy stood up awkwardly, appearing to share some choice words with LaCava about his position on the green, who turned away. Back behind the green, Euro teammate Shane Lowry exploded on his behalf, screaming for LaCava to get out of McIlroy’s way.

“Shut the f–k up, Shane,” LaCava yelled back, a retort that elicited only further screaming.

The story can be found here. 

5. The parking lot scuffle 

This was related to the scene on the 18th green. On Saturday night, McIlroy was caught on camera in a shouting match in the Marco Simone parking lot. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

As darkness and quiet quickly enveloped the property, players, caddies and their families began to file out. Marco Simone is a swanky place, but everyone is staying off-site this week, about 30 minutes away. And while players are largely kept behind closed doors for much of the week, their exit was not concealed from NBC cameras, one of which caught McIlroy in a heated exchange over what took place on 18. As seen in the video, McIlroy points and shouts in a spirited manner multiple times.

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The story can be found here. 

4. Xander Schauffele’s dad weighs in 

Xander Schauffele’s dad, Stefan, also had a thought on Ryder Cup pay for play. 

Wrote GOLF.com: 

After Saturday’s round, a reporter asked Cantlay that question directly. He’d declined to answer. “It’s not about that,” he said. “It’s just about Team USA and representing our country.” The subtext was clear: This wasn’t the time nor the place. “That’s all I’ve got to say about that,” he concluded.

But if Cantlay’s approach was to handle matters behind closed doors, Stefan (who we’ll reference by first name here, just for clarity) favored the opposite.

“I think if the PGA of America is a for-profit organization, they need to have the players share in that profit,” he said. “Instead of being so damn intransparent about it, they should reveal the numbers. And then we should go to the table and talk.”

The story can be found here. 

3. Fowler’s concession 

During Sunday singles, Fowler conceded a 2-foot, 8-inch putt to Tommy Fleetwood, giving Fleetwood the win and ending the Ryder Cup. Should Fowler have made Fleetwood putt it? Maybe. 

Wrote GOLF.com:

There are at least two ways to assess Fowler’s gesture: (1) It was the honorable and sporting thing to do; Fleetwood was highly unlikely to miss a putt inside three feet, or (2) Rick, come on, man! Yeah, it was close, but nerves make golfers do funny things. For the Ryder Cup-clinching point, you gotta make Tommy Lad earn it!”

Brad Faxon, a two-time Ryder Cupper on the call for NBC, was squarely in the second camp.

“That will not be conceded,” he said incorrectly. “No chance.”     

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The story can be found here. 

2. The U.S. lost 

The U.S. lost on European soil again. The Americans haven’t won an away Ryder Cup since 1993. 

1. Why?

After the loss, GOLF.com wrote this:

If the performance wasn’t bad enough, Johnson seemed out of his depth even in trying to explain it, largely declining to acknowledge the European advantage or the Americans’ sleepwalking start to the event. Even after it was all over on Sunday evening, Johnson neglected to address any of the specific strategic or competitive differences that led to the Europeans’ lopsided victories, chalking up large amounts of the tournament’s outcome to good fortune and … the infinite possibility of the universe?

“This is a moment where you literally just have to accept that the European team played really, really good golf,” Johnson said Sunday. “And that is really my freshest reflection right now, is that Luke’s team played great, and my boys rallied and fought.”

The story can be found here. 

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