Luke Donald isn\u2019t so sure he\u2019ll be following in Tony Jacklin\u2019s footsteps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacklin captained the European Ryder Cup team four consecutive times (1983\u201389), winning twice and essentially molding Europe into the powerhouse it is today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donald has captained the Europeans to back-to-back victories, but when asked at this week\u2019s DP World Tour event in India about the possibility of steering the ship again two years from now, he was noncommittal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWell, I\u2019m trying to still enjoy this one,\u201d the 47-year-old Englishman said, \u201cwhether it be a captain or whether I\u2019m not a captain. If I\u2019m not a captain in two years\u2019 time and the captain wants me to be there, then I\u2019m sure I would be happy to help him in any way he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Euros won in 2023, his 12-man team chanted, \u201ctwo more years!\u201d And two years later at Bethpage, he heard the same in the winner\u2019s press conference. Donald, though, responded by admitting, \u201cI don\u2019t think my heart can take two more years.\u201d <\/p>\n
The praise doesn\u2019t just come from his side, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think [Donald\u2019s] the best European Ryder Cup captain of all time,\u201d U.S. captain Keegan Bradley said.<\/p>\n
Donald hears the adulation, but doesn\u2019t want all the credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s pretty humbling when someone says you’re the greatest captain,\u201d he said in India. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a little bit of a reaction in the present moment, but I certainly\u2014I\u2019ve given a lot to it. I\u2019m very happy with the results that came with it, but you need those 12 players. You need the back room teams. You need the vice captains. You need so many others to make that happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, I play a role, but I play a small role in terms of a larger picture. I certainly couldn’t do it without the amazing support we have behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for who could succeed him, Donald was asked about the possibility of Rory McIlroy one day taking that throne\u2014and he gave a thumbs up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the fact that [McIlroy] loves the Ryder Cup more than anything,\u201d Donald said. \u201cHe made it quite evident that winning an away Ryder Cup would really be the icing on an amazing year that he had this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, he loves what it represents. You\u2019ve seen the emotion from losing to winning. Anyone that has that passion for a Ryder Cup, I think would make a good captain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Donald isn\u2019t so sure he\u2019ll be following in Tony Jacklin\u2019s footsteps.\u00a0 Jacklin captained the European Ryder Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-214299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}