San Francisco Frontiers - Ryder Cup captains play upon emotions as practice begins

The build-up to the biennial team showdown, which tees off on Friday, took an emotional turn under the watchful gaze of US captain Keegan Bradley and Europe counterpart Luke Donald.

Bradley gathered his players on the first tee before quiet, empty stands for a rendition of the US national anthem, a contemplative moment compared to the raucous songs and chants and screams set for Friday's opening matches.

"It's really powerful to be on that first tee without the crowds," Bradley said. "Every second the guys are together and can have a powerful moment, it brings them closer together."

Bradley wants to see golfers who typically focus on calming their emotions to let them out this week.

"What I love about the Ryder Cup is I feel like every hole is the last hole of a tournament, so you can kind of let that emotion out," Bradley said. "A lot of players that play with a lot of emotion play well at Ryder Cups because they don't have to hold it in."

Donald's team meanwhile displayed salmon polos in homage to the 1987 Europe team that delivered the first US home loss as a way of reminding his own team what can be done this week.

"This is going to be a difficult challenge. We haven't come close to winning three out of the last four away Ryder Cups. That's my job to bridge that gap," Donald said.

"But we have won quite a few times. We've won four times away since 1987 and come close a few other times as well. I think that's motivating to the guys that it can be done, it has been done and we're here to try and do it again."

This week's Europe practice attire will evoke other wins on US soil, including 1995 at Oak Hill, 2004 at Oakland Hills and 2012 at Medinah.

Donald said he enjoys looking at "all the little details about how you can try and find little edges and get the guys prepared."

"Ultimately it's my job to get those guys in the right frame of mind performing at the highest level that they can perform," Donald said.

"There's so much preparation that goes into this that you hope as a captain you have some kind of influence on the end result."

Americans have delivered lopsided triumphs in their past two home starts, 17-11 at Hazeltine in 2016 and 19-9 at Whistling Straits in 2021.

"Very excited about this week. We understand the challenge ahead," said Donald, who returns 11 of 12 players from the 2023 Rome winners.

"I have a great team, a team I'm very confident in, a team that has a lot of form and a team that's been together quite a lot over the last few years."

- 'Excited about my team' -

Bradley's US lineup boasts eight of the world's 11 top-ranked players and all 12 within the top 23, including top-ranked Scottie Scheffler.

"The US are very strong too. You just look at the talent the US have. They have the best player in the world. He's doing incredible things. They have a bunch of superstars as well," Donald said.

"We understand it's going to be a big challenge, but I'm very excited about my team, where we are, the form we have coming into this, and I'm excited about getting going on Friday."

Donald said the course set-up from Bradley was as he expected.

"Not a ton of rough. The greens are a good speed," Donald said. "Bethpage is a tough course but it's certainly not set up like a US Open.

"You're going to have to expect to go out there and make some birdies."

E.Walker--SFF