PGA of America set to announce who will captain 2025 Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black

The PGA of America has scheduled a media conference and will announce who will lead the Americans at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Two-hundred-nineteen days have passed since the Europeans announced that Luke Donald will return as captain at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

The Americans, meanwhile, have not had a leader as the 2025 biennial competition at Bethpage Black continues to draw closer and closer. But on Monday morning, the PGA of America announced that it will stage a press conference at noon ET on Tuesday, Jul. 9, in New York, in which PGA of America President John Lindert will disclose who will captain Team USA on Long Island next year.

Many have speculated that Tiger Woods will lead the Americans this time around. After all, he won the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black and has a better resume than any other viable candidate.

“There’s nothing that has been confirmed yet. We’re still working on what that might look like. Also whether or not I have the time to do it,” Woods said about his possible captaincy ahead of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

“I’m dedicating so much time to what we’re doing with the PGA Tour; I don’t want to not fulfill the role of the captaincy if I can’t do it. What that all entails and representing Team USA and the commitments to the PGA of America, the players, the fans, and, as I said, all of Team USA. I need to feel that I can give the amount of time that it deserves.”

Seth Waugh, who recently stepped down as PGA of America CEO at the end of June, has echoed similar sentiments.

“Tiger, he’s been pretty clear. I think we all know that he can be pretty focused, and that’s one of his many superpowers is that ability to sort of tunnel and decide,” Waugh said at Valhalla.

“And he doesn’t do anything that he’s not fully committed to, and we totally respect that. And he’s got a lot on his plate right now. He’s very active, obviously, on the Tour side of things. We want to give him and the committee space to decide, you know, decide how it plays out.”

Of course, Woods now serves on the PGA Tour Policy Board, along with Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Webb Simpson, and Peter Malnati. The board is currently negotiating with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)—LIV Golf’s beneficiary—about bringing together the professional game again, which has required much of Woods’ time.

Plus, Woods has dedicated much of his life to his son Charlie’s budding golf career. The younger Woods recently qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills Golf Club in Michigan, where the Europeans trounced the elder Woods and the Americans at the 2004 Ryder Cup.

A similar result occurred at last year’s Ryder Cup in Rome, where the Europeans took an early lead and never looked back. Hence, American fans have been anxious about not having a captain yet.

“We have picked captains later than this. We’ve picked captains earlier than this,” Waugh added in Louisville in May.

Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America via Getty Images

“Luke Donald was named a year out a year ago, and they had a pretty good performance, for instance. We think there’s plenty of time, and putting an artificial date on it is not something we need to do.”

The European Ryder Cup committee originally named 2016 Open Champion Henrik Stenson the 2024 Ryder Cup captain. But the DP World Tour stripped his captaincy after he joined LIV Golf and thus handed the reigns over to Donald roughly one year before the competition kicked off in Rome.

Fast-forward to the present, and we are roughly 14 months before golf’s greatest event returns to the United States. Team USA has won the last two cups on home soil: at Hazeltine in 2016, in which Woods served as Vice Captain under Davis Love III, and at Whistling Straits in 2021, where Steve Stricker led the Americans to victory.

“Bethpage is going to be epic,” Waugh said in Louisville.

“I think it’s going to be the Ryder Cup of Ryder Cups. New York and the Ryder Cup is a pretty incredible combination. We are going to have a great captain and a great team, and we are going to be very competitive.”

Tuesday’s press conference will air live on Golf Channel and PGA Tour SiriusXM radio. Ryder Cup USA's Facebook and X accounts will also stream coverage of the announcement.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.