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Golf Monthly
Golf Monthly
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Elliott Heath

Ryder Cup Form Watch: Who's Trending And Who's Not?

Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and the Ryder Cup trophy.

The Ryder Cup is almost upon us so we've taken a look at the form of all 24 players set to enter the huge 1st tee grandstand at Bethpage Black for Team USA or Europe.

Both teams are supremely strong, with all of the world's top ten and 15 of the world's top 16 players involved.

The only player not teeing it up from the top 16 is USA captain Keegan Bradley, who remarkably ranks 12th in the world.

So, who's in form and who's not heading into Bethpage? Let's take a look at some of the stand-out numbers.

Stalwarts

Scheffler will be the man to beat in New York (Image credit: Getty Images)

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is drawing more and more Tiger Woods comparisons, and his form leading into the 2025 Ryder Cup is simply remarkable.

Scheffler has six wins this season - the most of all 24 players - and hasn't finished outside of the top-eight in any tournament since The Players Championship in March.

He will undoubtedly be Keegan Bradley's key man and the player to beat in New York.

On the other side, Rory McIlroy leads the way for Team Europe with four victories this season. Sepp Straka is the only other man on either team to have won more than one individual title this year.

McIlroy's form obviously isn't as impressive as Scheffler's but a win and four top-12s in his last seven starts firmly cements him as the second-best player at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Jon Rahm is another you have to mention in the stalwarts category and he enters the match high on confidence after winning his second successive LIV Golf individual title.

Rahm has bizarrely has not won a single tournament this season but still ranks as Europe's third-best player behind McIlroy and Fleetwood according to Data Golf.

Fitzpatrick has been excellent this summer (Image credit: Getty Images)

Luke Donald can definitely consider a number of his players to be trending heading into Bethpage, notably Matt Fitzpatrick who has seven top-10s in his last nine starts.

Fitzpatrick has a worrying Ryder Cup record with just one victory in five matches but he is undoubtedly one of the most in-form players on either team right now.

Tommy Fleetwood has had a superb summer in winning his first PGA Tour title and he is currently ranked 2nd in Data Golf to be Europe's best player statistically. The Englishman has a win and three other top-four finishes in his last seven starts.

Interestingly, Europe has three of the four best players in the game right now according to Data Golf with Fleetwood, McIlroy and Rahm sat behind Scheffler in the top four.

Tommy Fleetwood is statistically Europe's best player heading into Bethpage (Image credit: Getty Images)

Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg are two others who appear to be finding form at the right time, with Hovland's last three starts reading T5-12-T7 and Aberg's last five reading T20-T21-T7-T9-T23-T8.

On the US side, Keegan Bradley also has some trending players - most notably with Russell Henley, who has cemented himself as one of the best golfers in the world this year.

Henley, ranked 4th in the OWGR, won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March and has two runners-up, two top-10s and a worst finish of T19 in his last seven starts.

Ben Griffin is another American playing great golf this year, with the rookie entering the week off five consecutive top-12 finishes: 2-T10-T12-T9-T11.

New York's own Cameron Young is another rookie, and he has also found great form over the late summer with five consecutive top-11 finishes including his first ever PGA Tour victory: T9-T4-11-5-1.

Slight concerns?

Morikawa has struggled on the greens this year (Image credit: Getty Images)

It has to be said that most of the 24 players appear to be arriving in New York in at least some kind of form, but there still could be some slight concerns for the captains.

Collin Morikawa may be one of them, with the two-time Major winner going through five caddies in a winless year.

He recently changed his putter to try and turn his form around on the greens, with his SG: Putting numbers letting him down in a big way.

Morikawa has lost an average of 0.313 strokes per round on the greens this year to rank 141st, although his long-game stats still look very good so he could be dangerous if he can get some confidence with the flat stick.

He is also without a top-10 in his last six starts, with his results reading: T43-T19-T33-T22-MC-MC.

Xander Schauffele is hardly a concern for Bradley but this is not the same Schauffele that turned up to the Presidents Cup last year off the back of two Major wins.

The World No.3 has played just 15 times in 2025, the fewest of any player at the Ryder Cup, after suffering with a rib injury and his three top-10s are solid but certainly unspectacular.

For Europe, Sepp Straka's form and sharpness is slight a worry for Luke Donald.

Straka hasn't played since finishing dead-last at East Lake last month (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Austrian is one of just three men at the Ryder Cup this year to have won multiple times but they were in January and May.

Since then his form has been up and down, and missing the BMW Championship due to becoming a father and then finishing dead-last at the Tour Championship can't be ignored.

He also did not play at the Irish Open or BMW PGA Championship so is coming in somewhat competitively rusty compared to his peers.

His foursomes partner from Rome, Shane Lowry, has no top-10s in his last seven starts while Tyrrell Hatton, considered to be one of the world's top players, has just one top-10 in his last seven, albeit that was a T5 at Wentworth last week so that could be a great sign he is coming back into form.

Who could be fatigued or undercooked?

Rookie Ben Griffin has played 29 tournaments so far this year! (Image credit: Getty Images)

Ben Griffin has played a remarkable 29 tournaments this year, which included 13 weeks in a row in order to try and qualify for The Masters.

His 29-event total is three more than anyone else at the Ryder Cup and 14 more than Schauffele.

Griffin has had a remarkable year and comes in hot after his 2nd-place finish at the Procore Championship so there should be no concerns there.

In terms of who could be undercooked or a little rusty, Sepp Straka has already had a mention while Bryson DeChambeau could fall into that category.

Bryson DeChambeau's last tournament was the LIV Golf Team Championship, which finished on August 24th (Image credit: Getty Images)

The LIV Golf star did not opt to play on the DP World Tour this month for tune-ups and is still suspended by the PGA Tour so couldn't tee it up at the Procore.

That means his last start was the LIV Golf Team Championship at the end of August, resulting in a full four weeks off by the time he gets to Bethpage.

Bryson is a unique player who works incredibly hard so I'm sure Bradley isn't too worried, but the facts remain that four full weeks off could be a slight concern for the sharpness of his competitive game.

USA vs Europe: Last seven starts and 2025 wins/starts

(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
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