Europe’s Ryder Cup win at Bethpage last September had barely finished when Luke Donald had to listen to encouraging noises from Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry to go for a third stint as captain at Adare Manor.
“They were in my ear the week after New York. Obviously, I live very close to them in the same community in Florida, and we were having a few glasses of wine celebrating and they were already in my ear and I was trying to bat them away and tried to enjoy the moment,” recalled Donald who finally, if expectedly, took up the invitation to keep the captaincy for Europe’s defence against the United States on September 17th-19th, 2027.
Donald took his own good time to come to that decision, after steering Europe to victory in Rome in 2023 and again on away turf in Bethpage last year. But McIlroy and Lowry got their way, keeping the English Don at the top of the table.
That Bethpage match witnessed some unsavoury and unacceptable heckling from the home crowds but, for the centenary match at Adare Manor, Donald is not expecting any repeat of those scenes:
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“I’m fully expecting it to be very respectful, passionate fans getting behind Team Europe. I’ve spent a lot of time playing Irish Opens and obviously The K Club at the Ryder Cup in 2006, just [experienced] electric atmospheres where it’s a really feelgood crowd. They love their golf. They love the hospitality. They are very hospitable in terms of welcoming people, and I expect the matches to be played in a very respectful and classy way.”
Donald has yet to decide on the qualifying criteria, which was changed for Bethpage, where there was only one points list and he had the luxury of naming six wild card picks.
“I expect there may be some tweaks going forward. Usually, the process, it starts around the British Masters. It’s a year-long qualification system. But again, we’ll be looking at everything to give us the best opportunity to have the strongest 12,” said Donald.
However, the uncertainty around Jon Rahm’s involvement, or not, has already occupied his head space. Donald hasn’t yet spoken to the Spaniard, but claimed: “There’s plenty of time. I think every time I’ve been captain, there’s always challenges to overcome. It’s never a smooth road. There’s always bumps in the road.
“My plan and my hope is that Jon is available for that team. As I said, he’s been a tremendous team-mate, a tremendous player and has given us so much. Again, I’ll have to have that conversation soon and see where his head is.”
Certainly, Donald’s own focus is on getting on with the job of captaining at Adare Manor with no thought of perhaps staying on for a fourth term at Hazeltine in 2029.
As he put it, “Sunday evening in New York, I had no thoughts of doing it again. But as the dust settled and the opportunity arose, and with the backing of my family, [I accepted]. Right now my focus is to do the best job I can, this one. I have no thoughts about doing another one in two years at Hazeltine at this point. My focus is clearly on doing the best job I can at Adare.”
