A look at the U.S. Ryder Cup team’s scouting trip of Marco Simone

It was a successful boys’ trip for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Ahead of the biennial competition later this month, the U.S. team traveled to Rome, Italy, on Friday night for a 36-hole scouting trip of Marco Simone GC, this year’s Ryder Cup venue.

The Europeans have more experience playing the course than their American counterparts, as the DP World Tour’s Italian Open has been played there since 2021. No American on this year’s Ryder Cup squad had played it, prior to this weekend. Therefore, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson made sure to get his squad a look at the course before the matches.

“That way, we get our feet on the grounds, they get their feet on the grounds, experience Marco Simone firsthand,” Johnson said in May at the PGA Championship. “Then when we leave and come back home for two weeks, they’ll have at least, I think, a pretty realistic expectation as to what is required.”

Johnson also said that the trip would serve as a bonding experience and help build chemistry in the team room.

Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were the only U.S. players who didn’t make the trip. Johnson told the Associated Press they “have family matters that definitely supersede what we’re doing.” Spieth’s wife, Annie, is soon expected to give birth to their second child while Cantlay and Schauffele didn’t make the trip due to “prior family commitments,” the PGA of America’s Julius Mason told the AP.

But for the nine team members who went on the team expedition, it appeared to be an indelible experience.

Here is a collection of social media posts from the U.S. Ryder Cup account that gave a peak into the U.S. team’s weekend in Rome:

The European team, meanwhile, will hold its own scouting trip of at Marco Simone on Monday.