Selecting a Ryder Cup team is a meticulous process, completed over two years by the respective captains of Europe and America.
Both Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley turned over every stone to select the best possible team for Bethpage Black, hoping to put their team in the best position to claim the coveted trophy in New York.
Several factors should be taken into account. Who do I trust on the big stage? Who fits the course well? Who is a good fit for my best players in foursomes? And for Bradley, do I pick myself as playing captain? These questions have been circulating in the captains’ heads for months on end.
However, one large factor that captains often consider turns out to be completely irrelevant, and Bradley may have been guilty of overemphasising it.
Players’ recent form is irrelevant at Ryder Cups
One of the biggest factors considered by captains when selecting their Ryder Cup teams is recent form. Who is the hot hand we need to ride? But surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to mean anything at all.
Speaking on the Fore Play podcast, golf writer Shane Ryan explained, “What’s crazy about it is that stats show that recent form is not that important. Now, you don’t want a guy that’s terrible. If someone is obviously out of it, that’s a different thing.
“But what you don’t wanna do is go, ‘Oh, this guy just won a week before, he’s going to be super red hot.’”
Ryan’s statement is backed up by research done before the 2021 Ryder Cup by Golf Digest, which did a deep dive into whether a player’s recent form has any correlation to their Ryder Cup performance. Shockingly, they discovered that it does not.
They calculated a recent form score and Ryder Cup score based on their performances entering and during the Ryder Cup, and found that players in good form entering the event did not improve on average.
Dan Rapaport, who wrote the article, said that his data was “suggesting no relationship between a player’s recent form and his performance in the Ryder Cup.”
History favours Europe’s Ryder Cup team over Team USA’s
So if recent form isn’t a key factor for good Ryder Cup performances, what is? Ryan said that what is beneficial is having players who have experienced success in past events.
He continued, “Experience, I think, is really key — knowing what the Ryder Cup is all about. And I want to emphasise, positive experience.”
That’s great news for Europe. Donald has selected 11 of the 12 players from Rome, and the 12th player, Rasmus Hojgaard, was with the team in Rome to support his twin brother, Nicolai.
All of the players had their moments. Tommy Fleetwood sank the winning putt, McIlroy put in an incredible Sunday display, and Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland handed Scottie Scheffler a record-breaking defeat in fourball.
Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley is bringing four rookies to Bethpage Black. There were a number of reasons to select Cameron Young, for example, but he has no experience at this level. Instead, he was picked in large part due to his recent form.
It will give Bradley some hope for the likes of Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. They have not enjoyed successes in 2025, but Thomas has an unbelievable match play record, going 7-4-2 over three Ryder Cups, and Morikawa was on the American team that won 19-9 at Whistling Straits.
But if the key to winning is experience at Ryder Cups, Europe have it in bags, and can take confidence into New York as they hope to win in America for the first time since 2012.