Four More Years, A More Global Rory McIlroy And The Envelope - What Implications Could The Controversial 2025 Ryder Cup Have?

The 2025 Ryder Cup will go down in history with Europe winning away for the first time since Medinah 13 years ago.

Luke Donald's men were stoic at Bethpage to get 15 points in a hostile atmosphere, even with winning just one singles match on the final day as the Americans mounted a remarkable fightback.

The Ryder Cup is the biggest golf tournament in the world and there's always implications that change the course of what comes next - so what could be some of the consequences of Bethpage Black 2025?

Future Ryder Cup fan behavior

Golf is a sport that prides itself on respect and teaching people values, etiquette and rules, as Rory McIlroy put it so well in the winning press conference when addressing the fan abuse.

Yet the scenes at Bethpage were truly ugly at times. We all knew it would be a very passionate crowd but I'm not sure anyone expected the levels that some spectators went to towards the likes of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.

Tom Watson said he was "ashamed" by the scenes and offered an apology to the Europeans "for the rude and mean-spirited behavior from our American crowd at Bethpage."

The minority sometimes ruin it for the majority, and the fans took away from the Ryder Cup. The nastiness actually made it a less enjoyable spectacle and caused a distraction.

The atmosphere was nasty on Saturday afternoon, which is simply not how a golf crowd should be.

There will surely be implications from it going forward. Prohibiting alcohol sales seems out of the question but there needs to be ways to enforce respect among the crowd.

"We will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland in 2027 that what happened here this week is not acceptable," Rory McIlroy said.

The fans make the Ryder Cup what it is but there is no place in the game for distracting players and making the story about the abuse outside of the ropes instead of the incredible play inside of it.

The culture of the Ryder Cup needs to improve.

We can only hope that things are much more friendly, fun and jovial in Ireland. It surely will be.

McIlroy to go more global?

I do wonder what Rory McIlroy's relationship with US fans is going to look like going forward.

The abuse he and his wife, Erica, received was disgusting at Bethpage - which came just months after he won The Masters on US soil to huge fanfare and just days after he said America is the greatest country in the world.

He has absolutely loved his time back on the DP World Tour this past month, where he has been treated like the superstar and legend that he is from fans at the K Club and Wentworth.

He has four starts remaining this year, and all four of them are on the DP World Tour in India, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Australia. This comes after a fairly long spell of him calling for the elite game to go more global.

McIlroy has also relocated to England, which is where I would imagine he will base himself and travel out from after the US Open in June all the way until the end of January when the PGA Tour season really starts to ramp up.

Whether he plays less on the PGA Tour seems unlikely, but he may start to drop even more US events in favor of the DP World Tour.

Saying that, he will almost certainly go back to being adored by the US crowds again when he tees it up on the PGA Tour, which just doesn't seem right after the scenes in New York.

Four more years?

Luke Donald almost looked resigned to the fact that he might have to captain Europe again as his team chanted 'Two more years' at the winner's press conference.

Donald will almost certainly be offered the job again for Adare Manor 2027 and it is going to be near-impossible for him to turn it down.

It is an honor of a lifetime to be a Ryder Cup captain, so what's another two years of stress, hard work and dedication?

...except it actually could turn into four years.

If Donald does take the job, which seems the most likely outcome without a huge list of potential replacements, then what happens if he continues his success and wins again in Ireland?

Donald will undoubtedly then become the best captain in Ryder Cup history, so you can't exactly blood a new face away from home. That would be a very hard act to follow.

The Englishman captaining at Adare Manor in 2027 and then Hazeltine in 2029 could be a real possibility.

Nobody has ever done four in a row, but nobody has ever been as good as Donald.

The envelope

The envelope was needed after Viktor Hovland withdrew from the singles with a neck injury, and Keegan Bradley thinks the rule should be changed ahead of Adare Manor.

We've already debated whether the envelope ruled needs amending for next time and there are a number of different tweaks that can be made.

Do they change the rules so a withdrawal means a forfeited match? Do they bring in a 13th player to act as a reserve? Or do they just keep things as they are?

Keegan Bradley signed the captain's agreement so was clearly fine with the rule prior to the Ryder Cup, but was then keen to call for change after it potentially negatively affected his team.

Luke Donald gave a very stern response to the matter that both captains knew what they signed up for, that the rule had been in place for years and that he was filled with faith that Viktor Hovland would have delivered a full point had he been able to play.

We'll never know what would have happened in that 12th match, and the likelihood is that this story blows over and the envelope rule gets forgotten about...until it is needed again.