Ex-U.S. captain blasts Ryder Cup course: ‘Don’t like Bethpage’

New York’s famed Bethpage Black course is decked out and ready for the 2025 Ryder Cup. But one former captain, Paul Azinger, thinks the PGA of America chose the wrong course to host the event.

But Azinger went far beyond that with his criticism in a recent appearance on Trey Wingo’s “Straight Facts Homie!” podcast, saying he “couldn’t stand” Bethpage Black and claiming that the U.S. Ryder Cup players “don’t love” and “don’t know” the beloved municipal course on Long Island.

Paul Azinger rips Bethpage Black, host of 2025 Ryder Cup

Azinger has earned the right to speak his mind about the U.S. Ryder Cup team. After all, he was a star player in his prime and later captained the U.S. team to victory in the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla.

And on Wingo’s podcast, speak his mind he did. Among the hot takes the former captain offered up was a withering criticism of this year’s host course, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park.

Designed by court architecture legend A.W. Tillinghast, Bethpage Black is ranked No. 34 on GOLF’s Top 100 Courses in the U.S. list and 60th on the Top 100 Courses in the World list.

But Azinger has no love for the famed course, at which he missed the cut during the 2002 U.S. Open.

“This golf course, I’m like you. I couldn’t stand it,” Azinger told Wingo. “I played my practice rounds, I did my two rounds and I think I was 18 over for two days there in the U.S. Open. The media loved it because it was a public course. What are you gonna do if they play the U.S. Open there every five years? I guess I’ll take every fifth year off.”

He continued by criticizing specific design aspects that to some represent the strategic genius of the course. But Azinger has no fondness for them.

“I really don’t like Bethpage Black. There’s a lot of awkward angles, downhill tee shots to fairways that angle away, uphill second shots where you can’t see the landing area,” Azinger said. “It’s just hard and you cannot fluke your way around there.”

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Azinger claims U.S. Ryder Cup team doesn’t know Bethpage Black

The 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup captain didn’t limit his criticism to his own personal feelings about Bethpage Black. He also claimed that it was a “mistake” awarding the course the Ryder Cup because the American players “aren’t familiar the course. In that way, Azinger argued, the U.S. team takes no advantage from playing the Ryder Cup there.

“Nope, not at all. We don’t know the course,” Azinger said. “I think one of the biggest mistakes that the American Ryder Cup team always seems to make, or the PGA of America, is they go to courses that we’re not familiar with.”

Many of the players do know the course and have played a major championship there. Bethpage Black first hosted the U.S. Open in 2002 and again in 2009. While those tournaments were before many current players’ careers began, the Black more recently hosted the 2019 PGA Championship.

It also hosted the Barclays PGA Tour event in 2012 and 2014. But the team’s knowledge of the course goes beyond that.

U.S. captain Keegan Bradley played the course regularly in college, and team member Cameron Young, a New York native, won the 2017 New York State Open at the Black Course.

Earlier this summer at the Tour Championship, Young professed his love for the course.

“I’ve just always loved it. It’s just a straight-forward, big-boy golf course. There’s just not much funky about it. The greens are not crazy, the fairways aren’t really, really narrow. It’s long, but it’s not the longest place in the world,” Young said at East Lake. “But it’s just straight-forward, it’s difficult. That’s the kind of golf I like.”

But Azinger argued that opposite, claiming that he could “guarantee” that the U.S. players don’t love Bethpage Black.

“I feel like Keegan’s going to have to get these guys on a mission and on a mission quickly and single-minded to figure out how to fall in love with Bethpage Black. I guarantee you they don’t love it either. Me and you don’t love it. They don’t love it,” Azinger said. “Europe doesn’t care what the course is. Our guys might.”

Later in the podcast appearance, Azinger offered up another reason the U.S. doesn’t have an advantage at the Black Course by claiming captain Bradley doesn’t have control over the course setup.

“I know that neither team has control of the course now, allegedly,” Azinger claimed. “Europe’s always controlled the course on us. I’m the only American captain that ever – was the first captain that wanted to control the course in some capacity and so I don’t know if they’ve lost that ability now to do that, but I see no advantage.”

He also echoed a recent talking point from European captain Luke Donald about the New York fans. Azinger believes if the U.S. plays badly, the crowd could turn on the American team.

“Even the crowd. I feel if the U.S. gets off to a bad start, even the crowd can be volatile there,” Azinger said. “That’s why I told Keegan right out of the gate, buddy, you gotta win the crowd.”

Azinger says U.S. must out-prepare Europe

Despite all of his criticisms of the 2025 host course, Azinger also expressed confidence in the U.S. captain and the team’s preparation, contrasting it to a lack of preparation at the 2023 Ryder Cup.

“We got out-prepared last time, and I don’t think we’ll get out-prepared this time,” Azinger said. “Our guys are playing coming in, they didn’t play five weeks in a row going into the Ryder Cup in Italy, which was a disaster.”

He continued: “They just destroyed us in that Ryder Cup. There’s no shortcut to success, you’re not going to hope for it or wish for it. We have the 12 best Americans, and they just have to out-prepare the Europeans, in a nutshell.”

Toward the end of the interview, Azinger reiterated that he thinks Captain Bradley has everything “buttoned up.” But he offered one last piece of advice for the 2025 U.S. captain.

“I wouldn’t play videos of people like Michael Jordan wishing them luck and the President wishing them luck, that just makes you want to throw up,” Azinger said. “It doesn’t help me. I already know they want us to win. It didn’t help me ever, I hated it. It made me more nervous.”

The first matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup get underway Friday morning, September 26th.