Ryder Cup 2025 live: Day 1 tee times and updates before Rahm-Hatton battle DeChambeau-Thomas in foursomes

Rory McIlroy was asked if he could remember his first experience of the Ryder Cup which came at Celtic Manor in 2010.

“Yeah, I think it’s more the behind-the-scenes stuff: The team room, the team talks, how much — I think for me, going in as a complete rookie — look, I watched Ryder Cups growing up. I cried when America won at Brookline. Like it’s not as if I didn’t feel something when I watched Ryder Cups,” he responded.

“But I don’t know, I just — I got into that team room at Celtic Manor and I just saw how much it meant to everyone. I sort of started — I was like, maybe I got this wrong.

“You start to see how much — yeah, especially for Europeans. I remember Seve was sick, and we had him on one of those conference call things like back in the day. He’s speaking to the team, and we’re all in the team room. This is on like the Wednesday or Thursday night. You know, and I look around and the majority of the team is crying as Seve is talking to us.

“And I’m like, that is — that’s it. That’s the embodiment of what the European Ryder Cup Team is. I think that was the moment, that conference call with Seve in 2010, was the moment for me.”

McIlroy has lived in the USA for many years in his Jupiter, Florida base after permanently moving after gaining full status on the PGA Tour in 2008.

The Northern Irishman has moved back to establish a UK base in Surrey this year, but with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy are American, and the Masters champion detailed why the country holds a special place in his heart.

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will launch Europe’s defence of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black on Friday.

The pair will face Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas in the opening foursomes match when the contest gets under way at 12.10pm BST.

Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick will then team up to face world number one Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley before Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood take on Collin Morikawa and Harris English.

The line-up for the first session will be completed as Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland take on Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.

Team USA captain, Keegan Bradley, says that Bryson DeChambeau will thrive on the atmosphere of the Ryder Cup and hopes that one of his star players will come good early on in this competition.

DeChambeau is heading out first alongside Justin Thomas and Bradley was asked if the big-hitting American will look to drive the first green.

“Yes sir. Let him get up there, we want him to do what he does,” Bradley replied.

“Bryson thrives under this sort of atmosphere. I can see him walking out, relishing the moment, relishing the chance to hit that shot.

“Besides the fact he’s a world-class player, we wanted to send out a fiery group to lead us out. Bryson relishes these opportunities.”

Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton will set the tone for team Europe and lead out in this afternoon’s foursomes against a strong American duo in Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas.

The two Americans are well loved by the home crowd and are sure to whip them into a frenzy from the first tee giving Rahm and Hatton an added obstacle to tackle during their round.

But, Europe captain Luke Donald is backing the LIV Golf pairing to perform strongly as they enjoy playing with each other.

“We feel like this is our strongest to go against them,” said Donald.

“We want to get off to a good start like we did in Rome, but we also understand the challenge ahead of us.

“I like Jon as a leader going off first with Tyrrell. It’s a strong start for us and we’ll need it.”

“Yeah, first shot in the practice rounds,” Rahm recalled. “I don’t know exactly what he said, but I think what he said was — what did he say? He either said, ‘Hey, Rahm, where is the Ozempic?’ Or ‘When’s Ozempic?’ Something ‘Ozempic.’ I just don’t know what word exactly. It was funny.

“So far, the humor that’s been there, it’s really funny. I would imagine tomorrow things might turn a little bit but there’s always funny ones, and not only towards me, towards everybody.

“I’m not going to say what they said, but yesterday on 17, me and Shane Lowry had a good laugh at something someone said in the crowd. Again, people can be really creative nowadays.”

“I think he’ll be a great force for us to get a lot of people on our side,” DeChambeau said on the President’s presence at Bethpage Black.

“I think it will be interesting and exciting to see how the crowd and everybody reacts.

“It’s going to be an electric environment.”

“I left it completely up to them,” Fitzpatrick said, after American fans shout “slit his throat, Berger” during his last Ryder Cup appearance on US soil against Daniel Berger. “There’s two things on that. There is, obviously, a little bit of that; they didn’t have a great experience in Whistling Straits. That’s not like a lie or anything or making anything up,” Fitzpatrick said on the eve of this year’s Ryder Cup, having admitted that the trash talk directed at him last time “didn’t go down too well with mum and dad” before highlighting next week’s DP World Tour event at the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.

“The other thing is, both my parents are playing next week in the Dunhill. They also didn’t really want to ruin that experience, as well, because that’s obviously special to have that. So yeah, it’s a combination. It’s a lot of travel. It’s obviously a busy week. It’s a tiring week. And then they obviously want to have a nice week next week, as well, with me and my brother. No denying that they had a bad experience in the past, but there’s no reason why it has to be like that this time.”

As Matt Fitzpatrick worked on his short game around the greens at Bethpage Black, a group of American fans saw an opportunity to get in his ear. They laughed at a couple of his duffed chips from the long grass and loudly predicted that he wouldn’t be picked to play in the Friday morning foursomes by European captain Luke Donald.

“They were telling me, ‘Oh, you’re probably going to be here [practising chipping] on Friday’,” Fitzpatrick smiled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right to be fair’.” They were wrong, as it turns out: Fitzpatrick will be thrown straight into the action in a new European pairing with Ludvig Aberg, as the opening pairings were finally announced.

“It’s just something that I’ve been into the last couple years,” he said.

“I think I’ve always been extremely into my golf and sometimes you just look at your golf swing and trying to practise hard and you don’t really get the results that you want, it can be quite frustrating. I think it’s been one of those things that (has) kind of taken my mind off of golf a little bit.

“And then the more you go into it, you just get more questions.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t really find any more answers, but it’s very interesting to go in there and kind of challenge some of your beliefs that you currently hold and you kind of have to expand your mind a little bit.

“I think it’s super fascinating because it touches on so many different topics as well. I find it really interesting.”