USA captain Keegan Bradley did his best to stoke up patriotic fervor on the eve of the Ryder Cup by running up the 18th hole of Bethpage Black carrying the Stars and Stripes.
On the eve of the match, Bradley whipped up a home crowd who are expected to create a hostile atmosphere for their their European visitors this week.
The 45th Ryder Cup kicks off on Friday morning and players from both teams went through their final preparations on Thursday afternoon.
Bradley was among those to take a last wander around Bethpage Black and his focus turned to ratcheting up the volume when he reached the 18th hole.
The USA captain grabbed a US flag – reportedly off a fan – and set off toward the giant grandstand behind the green. He could be seen waving the flag and urging the crowd to make more noise.
After Bradley reached the green, he posed for pictures with his father, a young fan and several of his players.
USA captain Keegan Bradley carried the Stars and Stripes up the 18th fairway on Thursday
Bradley did his best to whip up the crowd ahead of the start of the Ryder Cup on Friday
Team USA will be cheered on by a fervent home crowd over the weekend at Bethpage Black
The USA captain, who played the course while at college, is pictured with his father
The USA will take on Team Europe – led by Luke Donald – over three highly-anticipated days at Bethpage Black.
On Wednesday, US star Collin Morikawa called on the New York crowds to cause ‘absolute chaos’ at the Ryder Cup – and urged one of his teammates to throw fist-pumps in European faces when play gets underway on Friday.
The two-time major winner said: ‘At Whistling Straits (in 2021) there was still a little bit of COVID so we had a crowd but it wasn’t as big as what they say it’s going to be here.
‘I’ll be honest, I think it’s kind of tame so far, Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope Friday is just absolute chaos. I’m all for it. I think it feeds into who we are and the American players and the American Team. We want it. Like we want to use that to our advantage.
‘I think every sport uses their home crowd to their advantage, and just because we don’t play in a setting like this doesn’t mean the craziness of New York and the rest of the country that people are traveling in from, it doesn’t mean that we can’t use that to our advantage.’
As revealed by Daily Mail Sport, figures from viagogo show that almost every Ryder Cup ticket sold in their resale market has been bought by fans of Team USA – 96 per cent to be precise.
It is not yet clear what percentage of the overall galleries will be comprised of fans from the US, with around 50,000 due here on each of the three competition days.
