Bethpage Black 2025: Who Will The Next Ryder Cup Captains Be?

After the quality and excitement of the 2023 Ryder Cup, plenty of attention and focus is already being directed towards the 2025 version in the USA. We know the location - Bethpage Black in New York - and it looks like most of the current crop of players will return for another go at each other, but who will lead them?

Given the current landscape of the sport, it is difficult to predict who may lead Europe in particular. The likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, and Ian Poulter would definitely have been in the conversation before the fall-out involving LIV Golf. Their respective times may still come, though, depending on the details encased in the PGA and DP World Tour’s deal with PIF.

Speaking of LIV, Phil Mickleson should have been given a go at bossing Team USA by now but may be forced to wait even longer or potentially even indefinitely.

But with just a couple of years until the next American showdown takes place, a more stable choice needs to be made in the coming months as the planning begins for both sides.

Let’s take a look at who could be named as captains for the 2025 Ryder Cup.

POTENTIAL TEAM USA RYDER CUP CAPTAIN 2025

Tiger Woods

As the GOAT makes his return from injury, a leadership role at the site of his 2002 U.S. Open victory could be the perfect tonic. It would be the one selection that everyone - on both teams - would love to see, too.

Woods was recently seen guiding son Charlie to victory in the 14-15 age division of the Last Chance Regional and would surely revel in the possibility of looking after 12 adopted sons at Bethpage Black.

With a boisterous New York crowd behind them and in tailor-made conditions, it would be tough to look past a Woods-led Team USA in 2025.

Stewart Cink

One of Zach Johnson’s vice-captains in Rome, the next logical step for the 2009 Open champion would be to assume the high chair on home soil.

Cink is a steady personality who would surely deal well with the extraordinary circumstances of a Ryder Cup, and becoming captain would allow him to exorcise his demons from his playing days. The Alabama native was a member of five Ryder Cup teams but only won once, in 2008, as Europe enjoyed a purple patch during the early 2000s.

Matt Kuchar

One of the nicest, most polite men ever to pull on the stars and stripes at a Ryder Cup, Kuchar could be the perfect antithesis to the undoubted chaos and carnage of this titanic tussle east of Philadelphia and New York City.

He has already fulfilled vice-captain duties at Le Golf National in 2018, while four Ryder Cups as a player means the 45-year-old is hardly short on experience.

Zach Johnson is of similar ilk, in terms of personality, and he managed to find a decent tune out of the American team once they had recovered from a slow start at Marco Simone.

POTENTIAL TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP CAPTAIN 2025

Edoardo Molinari

Continuing the theme of men who are patiently waiting to ascend into the top job, Edoardo Molinari may be the ideal candidate to succeed Luke Donald in 2025.

Brother of Francesco Molinari - both of whom played at the 2010 event in Wales - the three-time European Tour winner may not have the C.V to match his American rivals, but his analytical brain and love of statistics could see him outsmart them and bring home another Ryder Cup.

Molinari will have learned so much from Donald’s successful campaign in 2023 and could use that to ensure consecutive victories for the men in blue.

Nicolas Colsaerts

The Belgian is a much-respected figure on the DP World Tour and a former member of that famous Miracle of Medinah dozen. He also performed his role as hype man admirably at the 2023 version as one of Donald’s vice-captains.

Although he only played in one himself, Colsaerts fully understands what the Ryder Cup is all about and knows what it takes to win - especially in America. If Molinari is not handed the job, the Belgian would be a natural choice.

Luke Donald

Potentially a left-field choice, oddly, but Europe could choose to ask Donald if he wants another go at leading the blue team overseas. The players would be all for it, it seems, as they chanted "two more years, two more years" shortly after lifting the trophy at Marco Simone.

Team Europe’s 2023 boss laid a magnificent blueprint out for Rory McIlroy and co. to secure a comfortable win over Team USA in Italy, and the thought of sending a very similar line-up out again seems tempting.

Donald’s record - both as a player and now as a captain - is exemplary and would certainly do Team Europe no harm as they attempt to win out in New York.