OverDrive - Faxon on the Ryder Cup pairings, if Europe can pull off the road upset & if Scheffler needs to win every match he is in

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Former PGA Tour pro and NBC Golf analyst Brad Faxon on the pairings at the Ryder Cup, if Europe can pull off the away upset, if Europe is sending message with the pairings, if Scottie Scheffler needs to win every match he is in, if the crowd may turn on Team USA and more!

Looking for a job, but not sure where to start. The Career Foundation is here to help. We support people from all backgrounds with job search, skills training, career counseling, and more. We also connect you with top employers ready to hire, all at no cost to you. Whether you're starting out, changing careers, or returning to work, we're with you every step of the way. Connect with us today. Visit CareerFoundation.com. That's careerfoundation.com. Changing lives, one job at a time.

Former PGA Tour Pro NBC Golf Analyst. He's down there at Beth Page. Here's Brad Faxon. How you doing, Fax? What's going on? Good afternoon, jents. This is a big week here. It's been an interminable wait to get to this point

where we're going to see actual tournament golf tomorrow. These players have been here since Sunday night. They played multiple practice rounds. Today was a day we thought was going to get washed out. There was some heavy early rains, but it kind of cleared up. Both teams got out on the golf course. play nine holes. The pairings just came out and I think everybody's ready to watch the most

anticipated rider cup will ever have seen. I agree with that. The buildup is incredible. It's at Beth Page. It's such a great historic tough course. It's been interesting the gamesmanship from both sides. In Europe in particular, they're coming in the champs. I think they've won a lot of rider cups in the last 10 to 15 years, 20 years, and they're playing it up, right? Like we're a team. We didn't get paid. You know, we don't, we, we don't have any playing captains over here or any of that kind of stuff to deal with. Do you think Europe's laying it on a little bit too thick, or do you think it actually might work in terms of the psyche of the American starting tomorrow? Boy, this is, this is to me a very, very evenly matched Rider Cup. The home teams and

rider cups have huge advantages. I think the Europeans have shown that they're the ones that have been able to win away from home more than the Americans, and they certainly have. The team the Europeans have have 11 veterans from the last Ryder Cup in Rome where they won, you know, convincingly. One rookie Rasmus Hoygard, his twin brother made the team last year. He's just replaced him. This is a team that's very strong, very confident. We haven't seen much on the PGA tour of John Rahm and Tyrell Hat and the two stalwarts that are going to start in the foursums tomorrow for the European players against Bryson Deshambo and Justin Thomas. You know, Rory said the biggest thing to do in sports, really, is to win and away Ryder Cup.

And he wants to be part of that again. Only he and Justin Rose have done that before back in 2012 in Chicago. But this USA team is formidable. Seven of the top 10 players in the world rankings are on their team, not including Bryce and Deschambo because of that, you know, the live players don't get the rankings. These pairings that came out, you can look at them and go. go, boy, this is incredible what we're going to see. I would say right now, there's a little bit of edge to Europe to me in the pairings and the way they played out. So how much of a statement

do you think that first pairing for Europe is? It's John Rom, it's Tyrell Haddon. Like, I look at that and I'm like, they want to make a statement and that's the definition of like smash mouth golf. You're going to have your American fans going nuts. We're going to have two snap shows playing together. And that's how we're going to start things off. Three live guys, too, because they're going up against Bryson and JT, three live guys in the first group. Do you see it that way? Like this is a statement that like we're not going to back down and it's going to be

you know, like toe to toe. This is an incredible first round pairing to see for these players. Bryson, I'm not sure if Bryson's going to try and drive this first green if he's going to hit first or if it's going to be Justin Thomas. If you look at the holes

here at Beth Page, Bryson likes to shape the ball right to left and most of the holes on the golf course that are right to left holes are even holes. So I don't know if Keegan wants Bryson to try and drive the screen just to get the crowd on the side and go ballistic. Justin Thomas is more of a fader and a very good wedge player. They're a tough team, but John Rahm and Tiro will have, these guys are grit your teeth

guys. There's nothing's going to phase these guys. These guys have seen everything. They're guys that are poor mentors. They're guys that would go in the corner to get the puck and throw it out into the middle. Both these players have competed well on the PGA tour. Rom, we don't know as much about him now that he's jumped ship to live, but they're a duel.

I like them together. I see them as a strong pairing. I see them playing every single match together, whether it's foursums or four ball. And, you know, Justin Thomas, his game hasn't been perfect. We don't know about Bryson Deschambo either in this format, as much as being an individual player. I think this is a toss-up.

With Brad Faxson, who's live in New York, ahead of the Ryder Cups starting tomorrow on NBC. You can watch it up here on TSN. If you're Keegan Bradley, if you're the captain of the American team, how many points do you think you need to get out of Scotty Sheffler this week? Well, I would go so far to say,

Schaeffler, his record in the last two Ryder Cups is two, two wins, two losses, and three ties. Much better when he's at home. Sheffler's played dominant golf for the last years. Nobody's even close. Six wins, two majors, gold medal. Playing with one of his best friends and a guy, Russell Henley, that doesn't miss Farrow's and hits great irons like Sheffler

dudes. These guys aren't going to make mistakes. But Scotty Sheffler needs to win three and a half to four points, I believe, to show his dominance, to show the Americans that he means business. And don't forget Bryson Deshambo. If you're throwing your guy out here in the first, first group. And Bryson's a guy you want on the course. The fans want to follow him. He's going to create the most noise from the USA cheerleaders out there.

Bryson needs to win three points as well. These guys got to win 14 and a half points and they need to do it from their top two players right there. Scotty Sheffler and Bryson DeChambo. I think a lot of the talk has been about, you know, the American fans and the support that Team USA is going to have. If it goes south early, do you think there's any worry on the American side that like those are pretty unforgiving fans there. Like what if all the sudden like the old New York boo birds come out and it goes ugly? Do you think there's any risk of that being, you know, where they're playing right now? I do.

I think these first round foursomes matches are huge for both sides. If Europe gets off to a good start, they quiet the Americans. But if the Americans get some momentum and can get this ball roll and win three points, win three and a half points and show that they mean business, it could be just another dominating home team advantage. I'm a little bit worried about a couple of pairings that I see for the Americans, Kalamorakawa and Harris, English, two guys that are very straight off the tea, good iron players, but maybe haven't played their best golf late in the season.

You look at Rory McRoy and Tommy Fleetwood, Rory won a couple weeks ago in Ireland, Tommy Fleetwood won the season-ending Tour Championship. The Fleetwood Mac pairing, they're formidable. They'll play both mornings and foursomes. I was a little surprised to see the Europeans, but Matt Fitzpatrick out with Ludwig Oldberg because he and Victor Hovlin played so well together last Ryder Cup. But this to me means that there he has a lot of faith in Tommy Fleetwood. He won the U.S. Open at Brookline.

He's a very, very good, I'm sorry, Fitzpatrick. He's a very, very good putter. And if he gets this going, he might give Schaeffler and help give Schaeffler and Henley a run. It's a pick-um there, I think. I'd be worried if I was the Americans about the foursomes just because, like, their record over the last 30 years in foursums is not good. Like, that's where they're getting beat the most.

When it comes to four-ball and singles, like, it's pretty close. But this is the thing. Like, you fall behind the way you have historic. and you don't do yourself any favors with obviously who you're playing and what the environment is going to be like around there. I think that that makes it difficult for the Americans. They do, like, it's all about the start for them. Like, I don't have any issues once we get into four ball and singles.

So it's interesting, you know, when you look at the stats over all these years and you can kind of sometimes you can throw them away each year. But in foursomes, if you look at the last six Rider Cups, In the matches in the United States, the U.S. is up 17 and a half to six and a half in foursomes in their home matches. So they do have an advantage at home. I think the biggest challenge for the Americans, you know, Keegan Bradley's a, he's an incredibly excitable person.

And as a captain here in America, I think the only thing he has to really concern himself is, do I get my players too fired up? You know, in golf, it's not like you're running through people like on the football field. you've got to have some sense of calm when you're out there. I know he's got these guys motivated. You don't need a lot of motivation to get some of these players going, but you've got to avoid too much hype. We know tomorrow President Trump is going to be on the property.

I've heard rumors that he's going to walk on the first tea in the afternoon pairings with Bryson DeShambeau to get the crowd even more excitable. I just can't imagine what that would be like. With Brad Faxson, no kidding. and you're dealing with New York. And a lot of the conversation leading up to this has been about New Yorkers, Beth Page, and what Europe is preparing for.

Is it possible to prepare for this? Like if you're, like, Maca Roy is going to get hit. Maceroy is going to be at the forefront. I think he tried to soften it today. Say, in America is the greatest country in the world. It's my wife's American, my daughter's American. I'll take him at face value, but I think that's a smart play by Rory

because he's going to be the target. But do you think Europe can possibly prepare for this? And how ugly could the chirping get from the crowd down there? Well, there's something already happened to Rory today. He was on one of the holes, actually buttoning a button up by the top of his shirt. And some fan, you know, you don't need to button your shirt to choke, Rory. And he just laughed and looked. It was pretty funny.

He looked right at that fan that said that thing. Rory pointed out and smiled. You know, I think it was a perfect way to respond to that fan. And I think you might have heard this already, but Luke Donald prepared all the team. They had, they've used some virtual reality glasses. They've had a comedian come in to yell insults at them while they're playing, you know, some practice rounds. And to get them used to what, you know, what these fans in New York, what they might say, in all these crazy situations

but you know some of this is going to make you fight harder some of it could hurt you and I know tomorrow morning at 710 there are going to be a lot of eyes glued on this on this tea time with Bryce and Justin Thomas how much stock is put into the uniforms

and do the guys care about them or not because I read an article today saying the 10 worst Rider Cup uniforms of all time and you know do the guys pay attention, do they care about it, or is they're just proud to be there type of thing? Well, you know, it's funny. The U.S. team has polo. Polos got red, white, and blue everywhere. And I think I was sitting next to Nick Faldo today in our production meeting, and Faldo looked that uniform, and there was one sleeve was red and one sleeve was blue for the rain gear.

And he goes, that would really bother me in my swing to make a back swing and see red, and then make a follow through and see blue. I don't like it. And then, you know, Europe's got the Laura Piana, their beautiful knit materials of you probably can't even find those shirts in the United States. And they are using some, some of their history out of the path to find the colors that were worn, the years that they won on away matches. So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with because those shirts that they've had have been very, very different to the American shirts. Yeah, they have been. Some of them have been incredibly awkwardly. incredibly

up putting. Terrible, as a matter of fact. Horrendous. Horrendous. But we'll see what happens as of tomorrow morning. We always love catching up with you. I know it's a really busy time of year. We can't thank you enough. Thanks, Fax.

We'll have a lot of hours. So one more thing before I hang up tomorrow on NBC, we go on the air. The morning will be on, I think it's on USA, and then we switch to NBC. I'm going to be calling all the American shots. The Irishman Paul McGinley, who was a

captain for the European team and has played on three Ryder Cups. He's going to announce all the European shots. And we're allowed to use bias and prejudice here when we announced. So I can say we rather than being kind of non-descript. So it's going to be a different way to do the program. That's awesome. We will be watching diligently. We cannot wait.

Thanks, Fax. Have fun there. It's going to be a blast. Nice seeing you guys. Love talking to you. Great seeing you. There's the great Brad Faxon who will be out there for NBC and the Golf Channel. coverage of the Rider Cup on overdrive, brought to you by Subaru.

This fall uncommon becomes standard. Hurry into your local Subaru dealer to get great value that you guessed it comes standard. All right. Best bets powered by Fando coming up on the football game and the Jay's game tonight. We'll get to that next. The newest tracks and the next big thing. Look what we found. And your first place to hear it all.

It's Iheart, new music. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh finds, and tomorrow's bangers. Updated daily. I heart, new music. powered by All Things Go Festival for the first time ever at Budweiser Stage, October 4th and 5th, featuring Renee Rapp, Casey Musgraves, and more. Stream now, online, on your smart speaker, and on the free IHeartRadio app.