On Friday night, hours before the 2025 Walker Cup at Cypress Point got underway, the GB&I team received a motivational message from Rory McIlroy. In the minute-long video, McIlroy, who was a member of the last European Ryder Cup team to win on American soil, noted how special the opportunity in front of the GB&I team is at the famed Monterey Peninsula track.
“As someone who played a Walker Cup and wasn’t able to quite get it done, and then to go on to play Ryder Cups and be able to beat the Yanks in their own backyard, nothing feels better,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy then ended the message with a Ryder Cup promise ahead of the 2025 event at Bethpage Black.
“Please beat them because I know we’re going to beat them at Bethpage,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy’s message spurred GB&I to a 3-1 foursomes session to open the Walker Cup. But Team USA got its own boost during the evening session in the form of an American Ryder Cup star: Bryson DeChambeau.
The two-time U.S. Open champion, who played on the 2015 Walker Cup team that lost 16.5 to 9.5, arrived Saturday evening as the Americans battled to retake the lead during the singles portion of Day 1. As American Jase Summy and GB&I’s Eliot Baker were tied heading to the 18th green, DeChambeau ducked under the ropes and stood with American captain Nathan Smith and the rest of the team that was huddled under the tree.
DeChambeau, who will make his Ryder Cup return in a few weeks, proved to be good luck. Just as DeChambeau arrived, Baker missed his putt and Summy won the match to give the Americans a critical point and allow them to take a lead into Sunday.
“That was pretty special,” Smith said of DeChambeau coming to support the team. “I’d say my first thought is, I hadn’t seen him in years, and he’s gotten a lot bigger.”
DeChambeau then hung out with the Americans in the locker room before giving them a pep talk ahead of Sunday’s final day.
“He just walked in,” Preston Stout said of DeChambeau. “Definitely wasn’t expecting that. That was kind of cool. He gave us a little pep talk, which was pretty sweet. Hopefully, this gives him a little motivation and fires him up for the Ryder Cup in a few weeks.”
While most of the conversation in the lead-up to the 2025 Ryder Cup focused on American captain Keegan Bradley’s decision not to pick himself as a playing captain, DeChambeau’s return has been an under-discussed advantage the U.S. will have at Bethpage Black.
“A lot to say about Bryson,” Bradley said during his captain’s pick press conference. “One of the most incredible things is he qualified for this team off of eight starts, which is unheard of. But what I’m most impressed [by] is the effort that he’s made to be a part of this team. He’s had to travel, go out of his way to meet us in our places, and he’s gone above and beyond what we would ever ask of a player, and that’s the thing I’m most proud of. You can go on and on about what an incredible player he is and golfer, but what he’s done for this team, putting in the extra effort, is amazing to see.
“The simple fact is that Bryson DeChambeau is one of the best golfers on planet Earth,” Bradley said later on Golf Channel. “We can pair him up with a lot of guys. He has been very open with — he’ll play with anybody. He’s just rabid to get out there and represent his country at Bethpage Black. He’s a really great weapon that we’re going to have. Bryson has been absoltely incredible through this whole process. Whether he is on LIV or whatever tour he is on, it doesn’t matter on that first tee at Bethpage Black. It matters that we have 12 strong U.S. players that are willing to come together and win the Ryder Cup.”
That weapon helped boost the younger Team USA on Saturday. Bradley envisions DeChambeau making an even bigger impact in three weeks as the Americans look to spoil McIlroy’s vision of completing the “best year” of his career with another victory on American soil.
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