Players Back Luke Donald To Retain Ryder Cup Captaincy

With Europe having secured the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone, attention turns to the regular DP World Tour schedule with the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Taking part in the event will be three of Team Europe’s players. In the build-up to this week’s tournament, two of them, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood, were asked about the possibility of Luke Donald leading the team at Bethpage Black in 2025.

Fitzpatrick seemed particularly keen on the idea, suggesting that, rather than a captain leading once before stepping aside, a cycle of one captain in the role for a home and away match, could be an option.

He said: “Doing an away one is completely different and it’s much harder. You almost think, do you kind of do that cycle? Do you give a new captain a home one to start with, let him kind of find his feet a little bit, see how that goes, and then let him do an away one as well? And that way you’ve got some continuation of previous processes and rather than kind of just brand new every time.”

Fleetwood stressed the decision is ultimately out of the players’ hands, even if they do offer feedback on the most recent captain. He explained: “I know that there’s been plenty of talk of Luke doing it again. 

"We always go through that process of what was really good, what we think -  what small changes we think we can constantly make to improve the European Team. But as far as the captaincy goes, that’s nothing to do with us as players.”

Nevertheless, Fleetwood had only good things to say about Donald. He continued: “You know, we’re very happy to play for whoever the captain is that gets selected and Luke has done a phenomenal job and I can’t speak highly enough about him.”

One player in this week's field who was not part of the Team Europe set-up, but is the DP World Tour’s Committee chairman, is David Howell. The 48-year-old said he couldn't see anything stopping Donald continuing in the role.

He said: “There’s no reason why he couldn’t. We’re going to have a different selection process this year I believe. Details to be confirmed going forward. A lot of support for Captain Fantastic at the moment and rightly so. Where we go with it as a tour won’t be down to the players’ committee.

“It will be a collaboration of a few different entities within our environment and we’ll come up with the best choice possible. Of course, we have history with Jacklin and Bernard Gallacher doing it three times in a row each. 

"We have moved away from that model to give everyone a fair crack at the whip and have their moment at the sun. Luke has enjoyed that. We’ll see where we go.”

As for when a decision could be made, he said: “I would imagine that we’ll start somewhere before Christmas. That’s the normal time frame.”

Donald's future may remain uncertain, but the latest players lending support to the idea of him staying on, following backing from the likes of Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, appear to strengthen his case, while he has also had his say on continuing, and revealed he is open to the idea of retaining the role.

While nothing is likely to be decided imminently, it will be an important decision to get right, particularly as the Europeans will likely face a very different challenge in the US, with the visitors not having won in the States since one of the greatest comebacks wins in the history of the Ryder Cup, at Medinah in 2012.