Donald said he would consider serving as European captain until 2025
ROME – The celebration lasts until dawn. Captain Luke Donald woke up with a hangover after just four hours of sleep, the result of drinking Ryder Cup champagne until 4am. Few members of the European team took to the pits on Monday. However, they were thinking about the conquest of Rome and what it meant during those two years in New York.
Rory McIlroy believes winning the Ryder Cup is one of the most difficult things to achieve in sport. The Americans have not won in Europe for thirty years. Europe’s final victory over the Americas took place more than a decade ago in Medina and seemed so improbable that it was definitively identified as a miracle.
Donald’s success and popularity among the players raises the inevitable question of whether he will run again in 2025, when the Americans host Bethpage, a rowdy bear den on Long Island. Donald was delighted by this attention and did not exclude it but asked for time to think and reflect.
Obviously I’ll think about it. I certainly haven’t thought about that yet. I want to enjoy now. I want to enjoy this week. It’s not an easy job. It takes a long time. It takes a lot of effort, a lot of thought. So I should seriously sit down and think about this with my wife and family. Obviously, I can walk away having done an incredible job this week and leave that as my legacy. It’s a big task. I won’t think about it at the moment. That’s a story for another time.
He certainly got the vote of the players, who shouted “two more years, two more years” as he arrived for the post-match press conference. As always, Shane Lowry is at the heart of the cheerleading. “We will all be happy to have Luke next time. He’s like a silent assassin, right? He doesn’t talk much but when he does, we listen. I’ve only known Luke for about a year and he’s a nice, fun guy and he’s been amazing this week. There are so many little things during the week that you don’t see.
“It’s hard to explain but it was fun to be there with this group of people and it wasn’t just 12 players. They are vice captain, caddy, wife. Everyone participates. The right people are there and Luke has made sure of that. He made some of the same decisions as the vice-captains – it might not seem like much to other people, but for us players, having those guys there was important.
“Every night when we get back to our room we have another dad joke in bed about a little Ryder Cup card. I don’t remember them, they were very nice. But I was impressed with the way he spoke to the media all week. The way he spoke during the opening ceremony made us very confident. If you have a captain who can open the scoring like he did in Italy it would be unbelievable. Even Molinaris was impressed.
Donald might also be persuaded by the emerging talent available to the next captain. Ludvig Aberg is the obvious totem from this group but there is a cohort who missed out this time who are pressing for inclusion, led by Adrian Meronk, Vincent Norman and Rasmus Hojgaard, twin brother of Nicolai.
Interestingly both Lowry and McIlroy chose to look forward rather than back. This was a not-so-veiled reference to those who departed for LIV Golf, not least Sergio Garcia, who tried at the 11th hour to broker a return to the Ryder Cup enclave. Garcia, Ian Poulter and others have all texted their congratulation to Donald but there is a sense among this group that a page has turned and a way back is not straightforward.
“They’ve had unbelievable Ryder Cup careers and they’ve made their choices,” McIlroy said. “They’ve done what they’ve done. No-one can take away the impact that they’ve had for the European team over the years. But I feel like this week, not having those big personalities in the team room allowed other guys to have that chance to flourish and to shine: Viktor, Jon, myself.
“There wasn’t a ton of space taken up in that room by some of the other big personalities and I think that just let the rest of the team sort of flourish. It’s a young team. We can all grow together. I could potentially be the oldest person on the team next time. It’s a new era. And it’s a pretty good one.”
Hear, hear, said Lowry. “We have a great foundation now for the future and I think it is a great chance to look forward. We have built the bones of an amazing future team here this week. Ludvig, Nicolai, Viktor. Rahmbo isn’t old. Rory is not old. Tommy is not old. Everyone is pretty young in the team room. If we do things right we can be successful over there, and I want to be a part of that. It has got to be one of my goals next year.”
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