Ryder Cup Captaincy, Surprising Food Choices And Advice For Amateurs - One Response From 5 Big Names In The DP World India Championship

The inaugural DP World India Championship promises to be one of the biggest names in the DP World Tour schedule, offering a sizeable purse of $4m and coming at a time when players are becoming acutely aware of what’s needed to ensure they reach the end-of-season Playoffs.

The tournament also comes from one of the most celebrated courses in India, Delhi Golf Club, giving it prestige even before the first tee shot.

There are also some huge names in the field, among them Rory McIlroy, who is competing in his first tournament in India.

He is joined at the tournament by fellow European Ryder Cup heroes Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry, along with captain Luke Donald, while Ben Griffin, who played for Team USA at the Bethpage Black match, is also competing.

Only Lowry of that group didn't have a press conference in his schedule before the event got underway. Here are some of the key responses the others gave to questions put to them by reporters.

Rory McIlroy

In the immediate aftermath of Team Europe’s Ryder Cup win, captain Donald was urged by the players to stay on for “two more years.”

While the Englishman has not yet confirmed whether he will or will not continue the role, McIlroy was asked if would like to become captain in his future.

He responded: “Sometime, yes. Certainly not 2027. I hope I'm still playing at that point. But yeah, I would love to be The European Team captain at some point.

“But that will be beyond my playing days, or at least when my playing days are coming to an end and I'm not good enough to make the team or I make way for the new generation to come along.”

But when does McIlroy envisage leading Europeans? He added: “So hopefully one day in the future, but I'd say not until the mid-2030s, hopefully, if I can keep playing well.”

Tommy Fleetwood

Not that many needed convincing, but Tommy Fleetwood’s Tour Championship victory in August confirmed his credentials as one of the best players of his generation.

The Englishman then backed that up at the Ryder Cup as one of Europe’s star players on the way to victory at Bethpage Black.

So, what advice does someone so accomplished have for amateurs? His answer was something sure to resonate with many recreational golfers.

Fleetwood explained: “If club golfers can start with trying to get around with one golf ball is always kind of very cheap, and so I feel like my dad, that's always his form of success in a round of golf no matter what he's shot, he has the same golf ball in the end.

“That will definitely save strokes if you can do that. And by the way, putting the ball in play and being sensible.”

Viktor Hovland

Hovland didn’t play as much as he would’ve liked at the Ryder Cup thanks to a neck injury that kept him out of both the Saturday afternoon four-ball and the Sunday singles sessions.

His withdrawal from the latter session was controversial because it handed Europe a precious half a point while denying Harris English the chance to play for the US thanks to the envelope rule.

The Norwegian addressed the contentious nature of his withdrawal, saying: “The whole situation was pretty upsetting,” before admitting that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to mitigate against the potential for players to withdraw from the Sunday singles, including sacrificing a full point to the opposition, as happens at the Solheim Cup.

He said: “If you do change the rule and you give away a point, now there's also the angle that okay, knowing that the other team is going to put out their best player most likely in the first few groups, they can just kind of put me out as a sacrificial lamb and take the L against their best player.

“So there's other ways around it, and I think -I don't think there's any ideal way to do it, but the most - I think that's just a better way overall to do it, even though it's just a tough situation, and at the end of the day, I think we'd all be wanting to go out there and play.”

Luke Donald

Luke Donald’s achievement in leading Team Europe to a second successive victory against the Americans in the Ryder Cup led to suggestions that he is its greatest captain.

However, even with that claim, he remains coy about the chance of leading the team for the third time at Adare Manor in 2027.

He said: “Well, I'm trying to still enjoy this one, whether it be a captain or whether I'm not a captain. If I'm not a captain in two years' time and the captain wants me to be there, then I'm sure I would be happy to help him in any way he wanted.

He added: “Yeah, it's pretty humbling when someone says you're the greatest captain.”

Ben Griffin

Perhaps conscious of Griffin being on the losing team at the Ryder Cup, he wasn’t asked about the match, but, among a range of other subjects, the question of his favorite food came up.

His answer suggested he is in the perfect location this week to enjoy his number one delicacy.

He explained: “I eat a lot of Indian food in America. I was pretty excited to come here and experience Indian food in India. That's the biggest thing in my mind.

“Well, in America, I eat definitely a lot of different curries, a lot of different Thai food, as well.

“But what comes to mind the most is probably eat a lot of korma dishes in America, a lot of masala dishes, paratha. So it's fun to come over here and get to experience the true Indian food.”