Europe Put USA to Shame With Eye-Watering Ryder Cup Bar Bill
Team Europe are eager to retain golf's Ryder Cup this weekend after their five-point triumph in Rome two years ago.
Luke Donald captained the Europeans to Ryder Cup glory in 2023 and is leading the team again this year.
The 2025 Ryder Cup begins on Friday and will be played at the Bethpage Black course on Long Island, New York.
With 28 points available, the teams will go head-to-head in eight foursome matches, eight fourballs and 12 singles matches between Friday and Sunday.
Advert
Europe's current captain made the team for the first time in 2004, a famous win over Team USA at the Oakland Hill Country Club in Michigan.
21 years on, Donald appeared on the Beef's Golf Club podcast and revealed the extraordinary extent of Team Europe's celebratory boozing in 2004.
"I went back to Oakland Hills for the first time," said Donald.
"I was playing with one of the members and they said, 'You know, you've ever heard of the story from the Ryder Cup about the bar bills?'
"I was like, 'No, I've never heard that one.'
"He's like, 'Yeah, apparently this is folklore within the membership at Oakland Hills. The bar bill for the US at the end of their Ryder Cup was $600.'
"So I said, 'Well what was the European?'
"He goes, '$30,000'."
Cue laughter among the panel but it's useful to recognise that Europe, captained on that occasion by Bernhard Langer, won the Ryder Cup by a staggering 14 points in 2004 so there wasn't much to enjoy from a USA perspective.
It was Europe's largest margin of victory in the history of the competition.
Donald was one of Langer's captain's picks in 2004 and contributed to 2.5 points by winning both of his foursome matches and tying a Friday fourball alongside Paul McGinley against Stewart Cink and Chris Riley.
Who will represent Team Europe at the 2025 Ryder Cup?
Donald's line-up in Farmingdale is headed up by automatic qualifiers Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard and Tyrrell Hatton.
Five of his captain's picks were the next five on the points list: Shane Lowry will be joined by Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick.
The sixth captain's pick is Jon Rahm, a US-based Spaniard with two majors to his name in the last four years.
Chris Nee