The 2025 Ryder Cup had everything: jet-fueled drama, volcanic American energy, and a European triumph that will be replayed for decades to come. With the crowd unleashing a tidal wave of abuse, the tourists amassed an almighty lead throughout the first two days, much to the locals’ dismay. However, on the Sunday, the nerves took hold as the rampant hosts roared back into contention, in an attempt to steal an unlikely victory. Ultimately, the Europeans held their ground.
Shane Lowry Gets Europe Over the Line
With the pressure beginning to boil over, Irishman Shane Lowry held his nerve, drilling a last-gasp birdie on 18 to deny Russell Henley and secure Europe the half-point they needed to be crowned champions on enemy territory for the first time in over a decade. That putt, struck against a thunderous wall of red, turned the final ripple into a blue tsunami. The cup was Europe’s.
Still, headlines before a single ball was struck were dominated by the stunning omission of Jordan Spieth from Team USA’s lineup: a canon of modern American golf, left to rue a disappointing 2025 campaign. But while golf fans gawked, online betting sites recalibrated their odds. The golf betting lines on the eve of the contest saw odds on Europe slashed to +170, still underdogs but live ones at that. And ultimately, they would get the job done on enemy territory.
But those with longer memories knew that it wasn’t just Spieth’s omission to have rocked the Ryder Cup, and that the storied competition’s shelves of lore are jammed with equally shocking, at times unfathomable, snubs. For every great hero striding up the fairway, there’s a legend watching from home—or twisting the knife from the team room in a suit, clubless.
Omissions have shaped the Ryder Cup almost as much as heroic putts. But which of them are the most surprising? Let’s take a look.
Paul Casey
Paul Casey arrived at the gates of 2010 selection with every argument stacked in his favor. Ranked eighth in the world, his CV that year glimmered—runner-up at the WGC- Match Play, tied for third place at The Open, and a modest Ryder Cup record across his two previous outings. Yet, despite being the second-highest-ranked unqualified player after Justin Rose and ranking 12th on the points list—just outside automatic safety—Casey watched on powerless as the door was slammed in his face.
Captain Colin Montgomerie’s logic? The Scotsman instead gave Pádraig Harrington the nod, citing the Irishman’s three major titles across the last three years, and the decision proved to be inspired. The Irish sensation did his part at Celtic Manor, going 2-2-0 as Europe claimed a razor-thin one-point victory. But even though the decision was ultimately justified, Casey’s omission still left the European press gobsmacked.
The Guardian’s damning verdict called it “almost impossible to defend the exclusion of the world No. 8,” amplifying a media maelstrom. The aftermath? For eight years, Casey’s snub was cited in every future captain’s huddle, until his 2018 return resulted in a poetic European victory.
Miguel Ángel Martín
Back in 1997, Miguel Ángel Martín had clawed his way into the tenth and final automatic spot on the European team—a local hero ready to tee it up on his hallowed Spanish home turf at Valderrama. Then, fate intervened. A brutal wrist injury threatened to derail all his hard work. Martín underwent surgery, tried to will himself back, and swore himself fifit for selection.
Seve Ballesteros, Spain’s messianic captain and a man for whom the Ryder Cup was both warfare and art, was unmoved. He asked his compatriot to play through 18 holes in the aftermath of the BMW Championship, a tournament in which neither Padraig Harrington nor José María Olazábal managed to overtake him in the points rankings, in order to prove his fitness. Martin refused, and Seve duly declared him medically unfit.
Olazábal—next man in the rankings, and no stranger to the Ryder Cup’s glare—was duly called up in Martin’s place, but the injured Spaniard wasn’t going away quietly. He brought in the lawyers, sued the European Tour for breach of contract, and demanded compensation. El País splashed the standoff across front pages, Seve came under increased scrutiny, and the Ryder Cup momentarily became less about golf than the spectacle of a Spanish civil war. Within days of the contest, the courts ruled against Martín, relegating him to a ceremonial role—his Ryder Cup dream reduced to a tragic sideshow.
Once the action got underway, Europe managed to survive, winning by a point courtesy of replacement Olazábal picking up two and a half crucial points. Yet, ask anyone who lived it—the 1997 Ryder Cup is remembered as much for its courtroom intrigue as its on-course drama. Martín never played for his team again.
Keegan Bradley
Modern Ryder Cup snubs are dissected in real time, but few stories have unfolded with the public poignancy of Keegan Bradley’s 2023 exclusion. By any rational metric, Bradley was in: two wins that season, one of them being an impressive performance at the Travelers Championship, were surely enough to seal his spot. He sat 11th on the points list—one heartbeat from automatic selection—and had everything a captain might want from a wild card, except, it seemed, the right friends in the room.
Zach Johnson’s picks? Season-struggling Justin Thomas—winless, languishing outside the top 70 in the FedEx rankings—Rickie Fowler, and Sam Burns, none of whom brought any kind of form to the table. The moment Johnson broke the news to Bradley—captured in agonizing clarity by Netflix’s Full Swing—a devastated Bradley offered his support, wishing his captain good luck, but the world could clearly see the heartbreak in HD.
The news shocked the golfing world, especially as three players ranked lower were all selected ahead of Bradley. And in the end, the omission turned out to be golfing suicide. The U.S. endured a record-shattering 16,5–11,5 loss—the greatest American mauling on European soil, with Fowler in particular failing to register a single point.
