Bryson DeChambeau could not even join the group chat. Kevin Kisner, the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup vice captain, shared the story on Fore Play this week, and it all started with a phone.

When captain Keegan Bradley set up the team group thread after selections were announced, DeChambeau was the problem. He didn't have an iPhone, which made sharing videos and clips with the rest of the squad impossible.

Bradley's fix was straightforward. "Dude, I've got so much stuff to share with you over the course of the next six weeks," Kisner recalled Bradley telling DeChambeau. "You have to have an iPhone number, even if it's a second phone."

DeChambeau obliged. He went out, got a new number, and passed it along to Bradley. The group chat went live. Messages started flying.

Nobody heard from Bryson. He had given Bradley the wrong number by one digit! For 30 minutes, a random person somewhere in America was on the receiving end of the entire U.S. Ryder Cup team's messages.

"Some random person in America is getting all these comments from the Ryder Cup team," Kisner said on Fore Play.

It did not end there. Kisner said the stranger actually replied.

"Hey, I don't know what any of this is, but good luck," the person reportedly wrote. Someone on the team, assuming it was DeChambeau joking around, fired back: "Whatever, Bryson, funny joke."

The stranger had one more thing to say: “No, seriously, I do not know who these people are.”

It was, as Kisner put it, a hilarious start to the Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup was hitting it into the rough on purpose, and Team USA walked right into it

The iPhone chaos was funny, but what happened on the course at Bethpage was not.

Kisner revealed on Fore Play that Europe was deliberately hitting into the rough on short holes specifically to kill spin on approach shots. Rain from the day before made the greens softer, turning what was expected to be a tough U.S. Open-style course into one that was much easier to play.

Kisner watched Tommy Fleetwood hit his shot into the right rough on the sixth hole. Rory McIlroy quickly said it was a great shot. Kisner was not sure at first, but then McIlroy hit his next shot from 80 yards in the rough and landed it just a foot from the hole.

"Boys, I think we're f*****. These guys are purposely hitting it in the rough on the short holes to take the spin off," Kisner said.

Collin Morikawa hit the fairway on the same hole. Harris English then tried to spin a wedge back to the pin, but it came up short, missed the putt, and they lost the hole.

"Oh no, this is bad," Kisner said. Bradley faced up and blamed himself for the course setup decision. Europe read the conditions better than anyone on the American side and scraped victory in the Sunday singles.

It was the ninth time in the last 12 renewals that Team USA fell short. Captain Jim Furyk has been named to lead the side at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027.

Read more at Club Golf!

Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason