Even with more than 12 months still to go before the 45th edition of the Ryder Cup takes place at Bethpage Black on Long Island, it is safe to assume European captain Luke Donald already has put a lot of thought into the processes he hopes will help his side retain the trophy won so convincingly in Italy last year. Which doesn’t mean the 46-year-old Englishman, himself a veteran of four Ryder Cups as a player, was giving too much away when he sat down with a group of journalists at The Belfry. Two days before the Betfred British Masters kicks off qualifying for the Old World side at the four-time Ryder Cup site, the captain was understandably in “wait and see” mode.
One obvious positive is already in place. With the return of the Team Cup (formerly known as the Hero Cup and before that, the Seve Trophy) in Abu Dhabi next January, Donald will have an early opportunity to assess players from both the Continent of Europe team and the opposing Great Britain & Ireland squad. It promises to be a useful exercise. Two years ago, six members of what became the 2023 Ryder Cup team participated in the Middle East, two from the Continent, four from GB&I.
“The Hero as it was last year was very beneficial to my Ryder Cup captaincy,” Donald said. “Just getting a bunch of guys together in team rooms, seeing how they react in that environment, how they react playing together, playing some foursomes. It showed me quite a lot and was somewhat impactful when it came to some of my selections. The more match play we can play the better. And the more we get into a team environment, into that kind of atmosphere, the better.”
To that point, Donald noted it wasn’t so much about seeing Europe’s high-profile players take part but rather exposing others to the experience of team golf.
“It would be great to have some big names and I’ll be talking to some of the guys to see if they can play,” Donald said. “It’s more about getting some of the potential players that have never played Ryder Cups into that team kind of environment.”
Asked about the new qualifying system that involves just one points list in place of the previous two (World and European), Donald predictably expressed satisfaction with an end result that will give him six automatic qualifiers to which he will add six captain’s picks. He did take the point that players who perform well enough to finish seventh and eighth on such a list will be more than likely to be selected anyway, but there was one caveat.
“We wanted to set up something where we felt like we were going to get the six strongest players,” said the former World No. 1. “And the six picks worked really well for me last year. It gave me a good opportunity to match some people to the golf course and to some people that had already made the team and to get enough rookies to make sure that we had a nice, well-rounded team. it gives me a lot of flexibility. You could get a situation where Nos. 7 through 12 are all rookies and that might be tough to take to a Ryder Cup in New York.”
Speaking of which, Donald is well aware of the potential impact a tough Long Island crowd could have on his players. The atmosphere is likely to be more raucous that ever in an environment that has already seen some unsavoury incidents over the years. No one, for example, wants to see another version of 1991 at Kiawah Island, the so-called “War on the Shore.”
“A lot of thought is going into that,” Donald said. “We’re all talking about the crowd. A lot of us have been there at Bethpage and experienced it. But there’s ways to handle that, and we’ve got another 13 months or so to figure it out. I’m not going to go into too much detail. But it’s more about the individuals and how they react to stuff like that. I’ve certainly talked about a little bit within the group. It’s a process of working on it from now until New York, not waiting for the team to be finalized.”
Winning at home, like what took place last year in Italy, has become a regular occurrence for Team Europe at the Ryder Cup, but building for a road win requires different thinking – Richard Heathcote
Adding to the challenge for the visitors next year is the fact that recent Ryder Cups, with the exception of Europe’s “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012, have become the preserve of the home sides. Winning on the road has never been more difficult as courses have more and more been set-up to suit the statistically identified strengths of the home players.
“I like the fact that we have won away at some Ryder Cups,” said Donald, reaching back into what is almost ancient history. “We’ve won four times since ’87, where the Americans haven’t. I think we’ll draw off some of that, try and learn from the Ryder Cups that we’ve won. We’ll try to inspire some confidence within the guys that it can be done.”
Asked about the recent victory of his American counterpart, Keegan Bradley, at the BMW Championship, Donald trod a well-worn path by expressing some doubt that anyone could successfully combine the captaincy with playing in a modern Ryder Cup. Not since Arnold Palmer in 1975 has there been somebody taking on both roles.
“I was happy for him,” Donald said. “He was a little bit unlucky not to be on that team in Rome. I would say it’s likely that he’s going to get a pick for the Presidents Cup. I’m sure he would want to as a competitor and an individual to play in it rather than be a vice captain or assistant captain. But it’s still a long way from now until New York. A lot can happen with form, and we know how golf can change quickly. But again, if Keegan keeps playing like this, then he could very well play his way on to the team.
“That would be very difficult for him though,” Donald continued. “He would have to give responsibility to someone else. There would be time for him to make some decisions and give team talks in the evenings. But while he’s playing on the golf course, he can’t be thinking about some of that stuff. He wouldn’t be watching how the other guys are playing, so he would have to rely on someone else to give him that information and make some of those decisions for him.”
On his own decision front, Donald took the high road when it came to questions on whether or not he would select LIV Golf League players like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who have both maintained membership of the DP World Tour and thus remain eligible to participate at Bethpage. There was even something of an olive branch extended to Sergio Garcia, who resigned his membership but has been making noises behind the scenes about re-joining.
“I’m excited to have as many players as I can to choose from and to be eligible, so I’m glad Tyrrell is playing this week,” said Donald, who has no immediate plans to add to the two assistant captains, Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari, already in place. “He’s obviously done everything he needed to do per the DP World Tour policy. I sent Sergio a message of congrats when he won the LIV event at Valderrama, but outside of that I haven’t really talked to him about whether he’s joining.”
What about Rahm, who played such a powerful part in the European victory at Marco Simone last September? Clearly, all sides of the LIV/DP World argument would like to see him repeat that role next year.
“I’ve had many conversations with Jon,” Donald said. “He absolutely knows what the deal is. He knew when he signed for LIV what the policies were on the DP World Tour. He has to play four events in a season to be eligible. And he can pay the fines, or he can appeal like some of the guys have. It’s really up to him to do that. I hope very much that he does and becomes eligible. He certainly mentioned at the PGA Championship he was willing to do whatever it took to commit to me and the team.”
The team. It’s always about the team for the Europeans. They may not win at Bethpage, but that won’t be because they played as 12 individuals.
Main Image: Warren Little
