U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker admitted to making “mistakes” during this year’s Presidents Cup, mistakes that nearly cost his team dearly. The American players saved his legacy with a furious Sunday comeback to win at Medinah.
But in his excitement after the U.S. team’s victory, Snedeker may have made his biggest mistake of the week: providing the European Ryder Cup team with a bold quote to rally around next year at Adare Manor.
In a Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio interview following his team’s Presidents Cup victory, Snedeker suggested the American players would be a “problem” for the Europeans in Ireland.
On Tuesday, European Ryder Cup star Tyrrell Hatton was asked about Snedeker’s comments, and his non-response provided plenty of reason for U.S. fans to worry.
In the modern era of the Ryder Cup, the U.S. team often enters the biennial event with a high level of confidence. That confidence is often based in the undeniable truth that its players are “better” top-to-bottom than the European players.
A quick look at the Official World Golf Ranking proves that point.
The Americans’ confidence, however, flies in the face of their woeful record against the European team.
The U.S. is 2-6 in the last eight Ryder Cups and 3-9 in the last 12, going back nearly 25 years. Last September, they were embarrassed again, both by their play on the course and the ugly behavior of their fans at Bethpage Black.
The European players, on the other hand, have become skilled at turning American players’ words against them, taking cocky quotes and using them as competitive inspiration to play their best at the Ryder Cup, and to rally their team around a singular mission.
The 2025 Ryder Cup is the perfect example. In comments to prospective U.S. Ryder Cup players in 2024 that were filmed and aired on Netflix’s Full Swing, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley said, “We are gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f—ing a–!”
Bradley didn’t think the comments were filmed at the time and publicly worried about their effect on the European Ryder Cup team once they were publicized.
In other words, he feared his quotes would become “bulletin-board material” for the European Ryder Cup team. His fears were warranted.
Following the European team’s win, Shane Lowry posted a photo of himself holding the Ryder Cup while sitting down in the European team weight room at Bethpage. Behind him, Bradley’s quote from Netflix was literally painted on the wall.
On Sunday at the Presidents Cup, Snedeker may have made the same mistake Bradley did.
Not long after the final putt dropped at Medinah, Snedeker took some live questions from Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio. At first he spoke highly of his players, arguing their Sunday charge proved they knew how to play as a team.
“I think it means more for USA golf. I think we’re all tired of this narrative that we’re not close, that we don’t care about each other, that we don’t know how to play team golf. You know, I think this proves it. You don’t come back from the day the way we did if these guys aren’t all bought in and believe in each other. And they do,” Snedeker told Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio.
Those comments reflected ones he’d share later that night in his official press conference. But then he dropped the kicker, the line that could end up in Team Europe’s locker room in Ireland.
“This team’s gonna be a problem in Ireland,” Snedeker said, referring to the U.S. team’s chances at the 2027 Ryder Cup. “They are going to be a problem.”
In the moment, Snedeker was proud of his team’s comeback win and grateful that they’d saved him from becoming the first losing American Presidents Cup captain in over 25 years.
But in attempting to lavish praise on his players, he may have caused a huge problem for them and 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk.
Since they aren’t part of the Presidents Cup, European Ryder Cup players were neutral observers last week (though Rory McIlroy publicly threw his support behind the International team).
That also means they weren’t available to respond to Snedeker’s comments on Sunday.
That changes this week with several of Europe’s finest teeing it up at the 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews.
Among them is three-time Dunhill champion Tyrrell Hatton. Hatton has been a member of the European team in the last four Ryder Cups, during which his team has gone 3-1 in the event.
In his press conference on Tuesday at St. Andrews, Hatton was asked directly about Snedeker’s comments that the U.S. team would be a “problem” at next year’s Ryder Cup. While Hatton admitted he watched the Presidents Cup on Sunday, he didn’t take the bait.
“Yeah, I sat and watched it on Sunday. Yeah, obviously there was a lot of red on the board, and yeah, the U.S. Team were unbelievably strong on Sunday, which I think probably everyone expected them to be. But yeah, to just sit on sofa as a neutral and watch it and enjoy it was really fun,” Hatton said.
When he was then asked if he expected the U.S. team to look the same next year at Adare Manor, Hatton again studiously avoided saying anything negative.
“Well, still a year away. There will be quite a few of those guys, I would imagine, will be on the team in Adare,” Hatton said on Tuesday. “The U.S. always have an unbelievably strong team at the Ryder Cup, and Adare will be no different.”
The fact that Hatton is aware of Snedeker’s comments but dodged answering questions about them is telling. The European players are not going to publicize their internal discussions or motivations, not at least until after the Ryder Cup is finished, as Lowry did last year.
They are also going to do everything in their power to not provide bulletin-board material to the U.S. team, as Hatton may have if he’d responded to Snedeker’s comments with a passionate comeback.
But it would not be shocking if Snedeker’s comments have already made their way into the European Ryder Cup team’s group chat, or if they end up emblazoned on the wall of the European locker room at Adare Manor next September.
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