Forget Adare Manor. Forget history. Ryder Cup Europe have a hell of a decision to make…
Before I type these next few hundred words, let me preface them by saying Luke Donald absolutely earned the right to take the Ryder Cup captaincy for a third time, and he absolutely is the right man to lead the team out at Adare Manor.
Why would he turn down the chance to become the first captain to win three in a row? And why would he turn down the chance to captain in the 100th anniversary match?
“I’ve been very fortunate to do this two times,” the Englishman told a small gathering of reporters after what ended up being a rather lowkey announcement. “To do it a third time is really, really special.”
A number of high-profile members of Donald’s teams in Italy and New York – notably Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry – have been vocal in their support of a third term. Indeed, it was this trio who led a chant of “Two more years!” following the 15-13 success at Bethpage.
“To have the backing of not only my family but the players meant a lot,” he added.
It certainly made sense. Justin Rose wants to pull on the blue and gold at least once more, and credited Donald’s work ethic when dismissing the idea of being a playing captain at Adare.
Francesco Molinari – an experienced Ryder Cup player and a vice-captain under Donald on both occasions – was the other option. The Italian had the backing of some of the players, too, but even he wanted Donald to go again. Another name floated was the older Molinari, Edoardo, but he’s quite happy being the team’s numbers man.
We’ll have that conversation again in the months following the outcome of the 46th matches, which is when Ryder Cup Europe will face a huge dilemma.
Of course, choosing a captain is something the selection committee confronts every two years. But this time it will feel different.
While nothing was ever officially put in place by the powers that be, since Donald came in it’s generally been the school of thought that each European Ryder Cup captain should be on a four-year cycle. Paul McGinley, the victorious captain of 2014, told Golfweek: “In an ideal world, you should do two captaincies – one home and one away. That would be the real test of a captain.”
It’s a sentiment also acknowledged by Donald himself. “If someone’s going to do one, they should probably do two,” he told reporters as the dust settled on Bethpage.
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Donald opting for a third Ryder Cup leaves three possible scenarios for Hazeltine in three years’ time. Let’s briefly break them down one by one…
1. Donald stays on for 2029
If Europe win at Adare Manor, Donald will almost certainly walk away. There is simply no reason for him to tarnish his record. If they lose, who knows? I guess that’s next year’s problem. But lose again in ’29 and suddenly a 2-0 record turns into 2-2 and your legacy goes remarkably quickly from one of the best ever to what might have been.
“Legacy is a strange word,” Donald mused. “It’s a label put on by other people. My hope is that, once my time is done, I’ll have the captaincy in a place to give the future teams a better opportunity for success down the road.”
It took him so long to decide to go a third time, the chances of a fourth are next to none.
2. A captain with experience comes in for 2029
It makes sense when you write it down like that. But who do Ryder Cup Europe turn to?
Thomas Bjorn and Jose Maria Olazabal are the only past captains who have been part of Team Europe’s Luke Donald era – and of those two you can only really imagine the Dane would fancy a shot at it.
Which leaves us with…
3. A first-time captain begins with an away Ryder Cup
What a terrifying prospect. Even some of the finest Ryder Cup players and multiple major champions this continent has ever produced couldn’t get their head around it.
Padraig Harrington at Whistling Straits? Dreadful. Darren Clarke at Hazeltine? Dreadful. Jose Maria Olazabal? Dreadful for two days then his players pulled off a comeback so unlikely they literally named it the ‘Miracle at Medinah’. Nick Faldo? What’s one cog below dreadful? And even the cynics among you will say Bernhard Langer came up against one of the worst US teams ever assembled.
(By the way, it’s not just the Europeans that have this problem. In the last 20 years alone USA have had Zach Johnson in Rome, Jim Furyk in Paris, and Tom Lehman in Ireland. You guessed it – all dreadful.)
So it would be quite the hospital pass to throw anyone.
When TG put the conundrum to Ryder Cup Europe and DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings, who was sitting alongside Donald for his press conference, he saw if off with expert prevarication.
“The job is to try and make sure you select the best captain for the upcoming match, which we have done in this case,” he said. “All we’ll do each time is weigh out the merits of who will be considered and try to get the right man for the right time. We have the right man for Adare in 2027.”
If Rose is sensible, he’ll want to get a stint as vice-captain under his belt before taking the top job for 2031 and ’33. Which leaves Molinari with the option to take on an away Ryder Cup or risk never getting the role he described as one you “don’t turn down if you get asked”.
And we haven’t even got to the LIV Golf guys yet. But they’ve been so far removed from the process that it would feel like handing the USA an added boost they rarely require on home soil.
This is why Kinnings and co get paid the big bucks and we just get to speculate.