were put forward by Rahm<\/a> in a recent podcast appearance. With the Ryder Cup being in Ireland, he explained, it would \u201cmake sense\u201d for McDowell to do the job. He offered the same reasoning for Garcia in 2031, when the 48th matches will return to Spain. (For balance, Rahm also nominated Rose and Francesco Molinari for the role, so he has the next decade or so mapped out in his mind.)<\/p>\nIt just so happens that TG have an interview lined up with McDowell a few days after Rahm\u2019s comments were aired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know that,\u201d the Northern Irishman ponders quietly as he thinks carefully about how to respond.<\/p>\n
Then he says something no one was expecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will openly say that I\u2019ve spoken to a few of the relevant players that will be on the team next year, and I\u2019ve asked them as to what their thoughts might be if it were to be possible, and [I got] a reasonably positive response.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDowell, understandably, isn\u2019t naming names, and instead turns his attention to the reasons why he perhaps wouldn\u2019t be able to take on the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a regulation in the European Tour rule book which would prohibit me from being able to do it \u2013 [as a result of] not taking my membership up in the last couple of seasons when I was eligible,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo that\u2019s a conversation I\u2019d want to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Graeme](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/graeme-mcdowell-2014-ryder-cup.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Another concern McDowell has is the ongoing animosity between LIV Golf and the traditional tours. Though, if the two Ryder Cups since LIV\u2019s inauguration are anything to go by, this tournament is above that. As well as Rahm and Hatton, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau have represented their team in the biennial showpiece while being a member of the breakaway league.<\/p>\n
McDowell, though, seems unconvinced. \u201cI would not want to be in a situation where this whole thing took away from what the Ryder Cup should be, and the pureness of what the Ryder Cup is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hate for narratives and for bad feelings from the fan base to overshadow anything that should happen at Adare Manor.\u201d<\/p>\n
One reason, he adds, is the County Limerick resort owner, JP McManus. \u201cWhat he\u2019s done for me and my family, European golf and Irish golf, he deserves the greatest spectacle in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, it goes without saying, I\u2019d love to do it. It would be a dream come true for me to do it. But I would just hate to bring any negativity to something that should be so pure.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pauses once more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat negativity is not within the players,\u201d he adds. \u201cClearly, the media drives narratives. [The Ryder Cup] deserves to be something special, and if we can create a way for me to be the captain where it doesn\u2019t take away from what it should be, then it goes without saying, I\u2019m all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Graeme](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2021-team-europe-ryder-cup-vice-captains.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Another note in the against column is the fact that, while McDowell\u2019s record is nine points from 15 across four matches, he hasn\u2019t played in a Ryder Cup since 2014, when he expertly mentored Victor Dubuisson<\/a> through the experience at Gleneagles, and his two vice-captain stints came before Donald found his winning formula. That, though, is not a concern.<\/p>\n\u201cI would do anything that was required of me to be a captain \u2013 like, anything,\u201d McDowell says. \u201cSo we\u2019ll see. There are some conversations to be had, and I\u2019d like to be there in some shape or form, but it\u2019s a little bit above my pay grade. It\u2019s obviously a very high level of politics. I\u2019ll speak to LIV about it and see how their conversations with [the DP World Tour] are going, because clearly Jon\u2019s in an interesting situation with the fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about the word \u2018healing\u2019, and I just hope we can continue to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has the support of one of Team Europe\u2019s leading men, but Graeme McDowell tells TG why he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-424173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}