A week ago, much was made of Justin Thomas’ comments about the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage, which caused a stir when they were interpreted as criticizing the final decisions on the course’s layout.
As is often the case in our current information environment, his 85-minute conversation on the No Laying Up Podcast reduced to just a few sentences, chopped up by others, chopped up again, spread out into the world, and then debated online. (You can listen to the pod here. It’s worth your time!)
Does JT wish he could redo those notably viral comments? Maybe. He went on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio to clarify them. But that is not a point I wish to address now. (At the risk of making a similar mistake.) I’d rather dive into something just as narrow but far more intriguing than the last Ryder Cup: the structure of the future!
Some of Thomas’ sentences from that podcast got lost in the hullabaloo of last week’s news cycle, and they revolve around synergies. While exploring what went wrong in 2025 and predicting how it might change for 2027, Thomas said the changes were necessary for Team USA’s success.
“What those specific changes are, I’m not entirely sure,” Thomas said. “But something changes (has to change). It just seems like there’s more, I would say, synergy and more similarities, maybe because — we have the Presidents Cup. I feel like we have the opportunity for it, I don’t want to say using that event, but something. There must be a type, such as PARTNERSHIP there. It doesn’t make sense that they are so…
“Connective tissue,” NLU host Chris Solomon said, jumping in. “It just has to be more…”
“They’re not related at all,” Thomas continued. “They’re run by two different organizations. It seems like there’s just a couple of things that I feel — we just, maybe if it’s … put ourselves in a position to be more successful, or just something that’s more organized for it — to make sure all the boxes are checked. It’s all — how it works, how it’s supposed to be, how it’s supposed to be, where we’re really successful, if I’m not sure we’re playing in the best possible position. responding.”
You have to appreciate Thomas taking on the question and sharing his feelings, even if he is so frustrated that he makes a concrete plan. But the reason he knows the approach could be more cohesive is because he looks around and sees the other side, Team Europe, with some undeniably successful strategies in place.
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One of the main differences between Ryder Cup teams is the structures that support them. On the American side is the PGA of America, which serves the mission of increasing interest and participation in golf through the massive network of golf professionals in America.
On the European side, there is the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, which operates for professional golfers – admittedly, if confusingly, as distinct from professional golfers – by hosting tournaments around the world. The DP World Tour runs Ryder Cup Europe over 12 months a year, knowing full well that The success of the latter lies in the foundation the financial solvency of the former.
In other words, while the Ryder Cup is an integral part of the DP World Tour’s big-picture strategy, it’s more of a stand-alone for the PGA of America. This makes it much easier for the top European players to completely set aside any individual desires (and/or differences) of theirs for a week or two. They’re playing for the tournament they grew up playing, the one that helped launch their careers, and they can help their Tour by hosting and winning a fun Ryder Cup. (Their investment in the outcome is part of the reason Americans earning a salary to play in the Cup – while Europeans don’t – it’s not apples to apples.)
The people who run Ryder Cup Europe are the same people who meet Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland at basically every non-US tournament they play all year. The media relations staff who organize and moderate McIlroy’s press conferences at, say, the Australian Open in December are the same staff he embraced in a hug off the 18th tee after his Ryder Cup matches in New York. The tournament directors overseeing the green speed of the Dubai Desert Classic tournament in January were there sharing updates with Hovland on putting greens at Bethpage Black right before his matches. I was lucky enough to be there for both of the above and chatted with David Garland, Director of Tourism Operations at DPWT between Saturday sessions in Bethpage. He researched behind the scenes throughout Ryder Cup week, busy as ever because it’s his job and he’s passionate about it.
But his compatriot across the pond? This is likely Kerry Haighchief tournament officer for the PGA of America. Haigh’s course setups are popular with pros, but he has fewer built-in options to recognize them. He would organically connect with the pros twice a year (if that), during the Ryder Cup plus the PGA Championship, a major with 156 players in the field. (The fact that 20 of them are club professionals serves as another reminder that these governing bodies have different goals in mind. And for the record, that’s okay! It just creates a ton of synergy on one side and a built-in challenge on the other.)
If you look closely at the content released by Ryder Cup Europe, you’ll see Garland occasionally in the background, or sitting down to dinner with McIlroy or other players. The same can be said for Michael Gibbons, formerly the director of content for the DP World Tour, the man who originally came up with the idea of ​​Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood going to bed together after the 2018 Ryder Cup. Gibbons is able to obsess over the minutiae of the Ryder Cup on a more full-time schedule these days, helping to manifest everything that enhances a winning path for Team Europe. It will see players in Dubai and in England and Scotland throughout the calendar, building the confidence and recognition that the PGA of America simply cannot create one week a year.
Is it the constant presence of the same people doing the same things help do europeans shoot more in times of crisis? It’s hard to quantify, which makes it one of golf’s great unanswerable questions. But it’s at least a reasonable theory that continuity makes them more comfortable. You can also look at the gym, where the physios and the people who look after Team Europe’s bodies on Ryder Cup week are the same people who drive around Europe in a big fitness trailer all season. If Viktor Hovland’s neck is bothering him, the same people helping him in Bethpage are the ones he’ll find when he starts his 2026 calendar year in the United Arab Emirates. On the build front, this looks like an advantage.
All of which brings us back to Thomas’ dream of a certified partnership between governing bodies that work to run our similar but different versions of Team USA every other year. What he is dreaming of, even if he hasn’t said it directly, is something very similar to what Ryder Cup Europe has.
None of this would be such a big deal if the Americans won the event more often. But in response to each defeat – now five of the last seven Cups – the search for answers has become more urgent.
So … could there be some kind of partnership between the Presidents Cup — run by the PGA Tour, which ties with pros like Thomas more than 20 weeks a year — and the Ryder Cup topping the PGA of America?
One has to hope that Thomas is sending that request up the ladder.
