It was a successful boyhood tour for the US Ryder Cup team.
Ahead of the biennial competition later this month, the U.S. team traveled to Rome, Italy, Friday night for a 36-hole scouting tour at Marco Simone GC, this year’s Ryder Cup venue.
The Europeans have more experience playing the course than their American counterparts, as the DP World Tour’s Italian Open has been played there since 2021. No Americans on this year’s Ryder Cup team had played it before this weekend. That’s why American Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson made sure his team got a look at the course before the matches.
“That way we get our feet on the course, they get their feet on the course, Marco Simone experienced firsthand,” Johnson said in May at the PGA Championship. “Then when we leave and come home for two weeks, at least I think they’ll have a pretty realistic expectation of what’s required.”
Johnson also said the trip would serve as a bonding experience and help build chemistry in the team room.
Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were the only American players not to make the trip. Johnson told the Associated Press that they “have family cases that are definitely superseding what we’re doing.” Spieth’s wife, Annie, is expected to give birth to their second child soon, while Cantlay and Schauffele did not make the tour due to “prior family commitments,” PGA of America’s Julius Mason told the AP.
But for the nine team members who went on the team expedition, it appeared to be an indelible experience.
Here’s a collection of social media posts from the US Ryder Cup account that highlighted the US team’s weekend in Rome:
The European team, meanwhile, will hold its own scouting trip with Marco Simone on Monday.