Justin Thomas Reveals Shocking Green-Speed Fight At Ryder Cup That Disadvantaged Team USA: ‘It Was Bizarre'
Oh, what could have been for the U.S. at Bethpage
More than two months have passed since Team Europe took down the Americans at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black by a final tally of 15–13. However, despite the biennial event being long in the rearview, we're still getting new details about what turned out to be one of the wildest three-day stretches in recent memory.
Each time the Ryder Cup rolls around, the golf course setup becomes one of the biggest storylines of the week. From overall yardage to rough length to green speeds, the host team has major input on how the course will be set up.
This is supposed to give the home team an advantage — but according to Justin Thomas, things didn’t exactly work out that way for Team USA.
Thomas, who went 2–2–0 in his matches at Bethpage Black, recently joined the ‘No Laying Up’ podcast and was asked about the green speeds throughout the week. Analysts and commentators suggested the greens were on the slower side. Not only did Thomas confirm that, but he claimed the greenskeepers and U.S. captain Keegan Bradley could not get on the same page about the putting surfaces — to put it mildly.
"I don’t know why they weren’t at all what Keegan had asked for. I mean, he had been pretty clear of asking for a certain speed and wanting it fast enough. I watched them argue with us that they were 13s [on the stimp meter]," Thomas explained.
"And it’s like, ‘guys, we play golf every week, like, look on TV at how many guys are leaving putts short… You can’t have a putt roll three feet, four feet past the hole. Like, these greens are slow, speed them up.’ It was just bizarre because that’s not something you would expect at a home Ryder Cup."
Justin Thomas looks on after a putt. (Cheryl Evans/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Green Speeds An Issue For The U.S. At Bethpage
While Thomas acknowledged that slower greens weren’t an excuse — since Europe had to adjust as well — it is surprising that the agronomy staff couldn’t get the speeds dialed to where Bradley and the U.S. team wanted them.
"But that’s kind of a fun advantage you generally have — being able to do that a little bit — and it was just so frustrating that we were being fought with and argued with on the speed of the greens that we asked for. So that was bizarre," Thomas continued.
It’s worth noting that the PGA of America announced Bethpage Black as the 2025 host way back in 2013. We’re talking about an event 12 years in the making that, according to Thomas, still couldn’t get aligned with the host team’s preferences.
It would be ridiculous to look back now and say slightly faster greens would’ve flipped the result — Europe led 11.5–4.5 heading into Sunday — but one would imagine the U.S. team would at least get its preferred putting surfaces on home soil.