5 Most Dramatic Ryder Cup Moments in Full Swing: Rory McIlroy’s Redemption, Keegan Bradley Heartbreak, and More

Ryder Cup formed a good part of the second season of Full Swing, the Netflix docuseries. The series reaches the run-up to the Ryder Cup after starting with Rory McIlroy’s reaction to the merger announcement. From Zach Johnson’s tough call on Keegan Bradley to Justin Thomas coming in support of Patrick Cantlay, here are the top five Ryder Cup moments from Full Swing season 2. 

Dawn of a new era for Team Europe 

Gathering around a young team wasn’t going to be easy. Europe has lost Ryder Cup stalwarts, including their first-choice captain, Henrik Stenson, and the highest point earner, Sergio Garcia, to LIV Golf. The cross-firing was still heavily going on when Luke Donald took charge. 

Some hard decisions later saw Adrian Meronk get snubbed; Ludvig Aberg, Robert McIntyre, Sepp Straka, and Nicolai Hojgaard joined as rookies. Dan Rapaport provides more context. “There are five guys outside the top 30, three guys outside the top 50, four rookies.” Compared to that, the US team was stacked with major winners and the top 20 from the OWGR. However, for Zach Johnson, the job wasn’t easy either.

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Keegan Bradley had been waiting for this call for a long time. Fingers crossed. Will he make it or not? As an audience, you already know the answer. But that doesn’t make the moment any less gut-wrenching when the phone finally rings. 

“Hi, buddy. Thanks for being patient with me. There’s no easy way to say this, my friend; I find it best to just go in a different direction this year.” Bradley knew where the captain was getting at. “It’s nothing you did or didn’t do because you’re amazing on and off the course. I just feel like it’s best this year to go in a different direction. I would love to take 30 guys, but I cannot. And just know that I am so grateful for you.” Bradley wished him luck before hanging up.

“It’s anger, sadness, all the things, but then it’s like there’s no wrong decision with who’s on the team; everyone’s such a great player,” he added in the documentary series. Reading this in context with what he said after the 2023 Travelers Championship makes it even more painful to watch. “I think about the Ryder Cup every second I’m awake, basically,” the PGA Tour pro said last June.

Rickie Fowler can’t understand the Ryder Cup controversy 

On Sunday singles, Rickie Fowler’s drive ended up on the water in the par-4 16th. Fowler, however, recovered. And Tommy Fleetwood couldn’t make the eight-foot eagle putt, stopping around three feet short. Strangely enough, Fowler conceded the putt to the Englishman, handing them the half-point needed to seal the 2023 Ryder Cup. 

There has been a lot of controversy since then. Was it the right decision? Fowler defended his decision. “I get the points people make of ‘Don’t give a putt to win the Ryder Cup,’ but in any other time or match, that putt is good. Why is it not in that situation?” asks the six-time PGA Tour winner. However, that was a ‘lesser’ controversy than what gripped Team USA the day before.

Justin Thomas brushes aside the ‘hatgate’

Patrick Cantlay took the battering from the on-course European fans after a report went viral that the American international was going hatless as a protest against players not getting paid for the Ryder Cup. However, Justin Thomas stood by his teammates by going hatless the next day.

“That match on Sunday, I was chomping at the beat. I was ready to go. I told Pat, ‘I’m not wearing a hat today for you. It’s like, ‘If you can sack up for us like that last night, I can easily not wear a hat all day,” Thomas said in the docu-series. 

The 15-time PGA Tour winner, however, commended the away fans, saying, “That’s what I love about the European fans. They’ll needle you; they’ll just jab you all day. But if you go there and win, they’ll be the first person to tell you, ‘Great playing,’ and I appreciate that.”

Rory McIlroy’s Ryder Cup redemption at Marco Simone 

No one was perhaps more disappointed than Rory McIlroy at Whistling Straits when Team USA thrashed the Europeans with a 19-9 humiliation. “I love being part of this team; I love my teammates, and I should have done more for them this week,” the Northern Irish Pro said, trying to fight back tears. Giving up, he went on to add, “No matter what happens after this, I’m proud of every single one of those players that played this week. I’m proud of our captain and our vice captains. It’s been a tough week.”

Two years later, McIlroy was still tearful. Only this time, those were tears of joy. “The whole run from the end of 2021, all of 2022, this year as well… it all started from that last day at Whistling Straits.” Ironically, McIlroy, at the start of his career, wasn’t so much into the Ryder Cup, calling it “an exhibition at the end of the day.”

As Europe sealed another home-soil win, Justin Thomas was tearful this time. But he called it the only tournament where you can lose and still have fun. That pretty much sums up the Ryder Cup fever.

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