Luke Donald Reveals Ryder Cup Conversation With Sergio Garcia: ‘I Had to Give Him a Realistic View’
The opening tee shots at the Ryder Cup are six weeks away, but first-team Europe and its captain Luke Donald will have six wild-card picks for the first time in team history. Europe has adopted a formula that worked for U.S. captain Steve Stricker two years ago at Whistling Straits when he handpicked six players for his side.
This week Donald’s team received its first automatic qualifiers: Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. All are ranked in the top five in the Official World Golf Rankings and top six in the SI World Golf Rankings.
As Donald’s team begins to take form, how soon can he start thinking about pairings?
“Certainly you’re having thoughts. It’s a little bit hard to completely finalize pairings when you don’t have a final team,” Donald said recently on the Beyond the Clubhouse podcast. “I’ve got six picks, and a couple of those are pretty obvious in my mind right now. But I think there are spots open.”
There are three more DP World Tour events before Donald makes his picks: this week’s ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, next week’s D+D Real Czech Masters and the Omega European Masters two weeks later.
“Some of these (potential picks) are playing in the U.S. in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, so I think there are still some spots up for grabs. I’m encouraging all of the players to show me something. A lot of them have played well and given themselves an opportunity, and if they keep playing well, I’m going to be forced to keep a good eye on them.”
Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka, Tyrrell Hatton and Séamus Power are among those hopefuls playing this week at the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields.
Donald was asked whether he cared to name a couple of other players who are locks for his squad.
“Absolutely not. I don’t think that’s fair for the players,” Donald said. “I’ll have those conversations before [they’re announced] with the players. But I think we’re very close again after this week to be able to announce players who cannot be knocked out automatically, so there will be another announcement soon after this week. The team is really beginning to take shape. I’m obviously really excited to have Rory, Jon and Viktor as part of it, and that’s a pretty strong start.”
Donald says he’s looking at recent form, how players’ statistics match Marco Simone, and overall personality and team fit as the key ingredients for his picks.
“It’s just a whole mix of lots of things,” Donald said.
Donald’s counterpart Zach Johnson seems to have an ever-expanding pool of players from which to choose his six picks. Donald is impressed with the U.S. options.
“The U.S. always has a massive stable of players that they can choose from; that’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing,” Donald said. “It’s a good thing that there are so many good quality players and it’s a bad thing that some are going to miss out. Zach’s going to have to make some tough choices. I’m really trying to concentrate more on my choices. I really don’t have any say in what Zach does, but it will be interesting to see. I’ll get to his picks before mine.”
Donald will make his picks Sept. 4, six days after Johnson makes his six captain’s picks Aug. 29, following the Tour Championship.
“I don’t think that will change anything for me,” Donald said. “I can’t really do that matchup so much, but I do really get to see his picks the week before, so it will be interesting to see where he goes.”
Johnson has even more of an open canvas to fill, including the possibility of selecting LIV players. The European Tour will not allow Donald to pull from the LIV Golf pool.
“I certainly have quite a bit of clarity from where I am. If you resign your [DP World Tour] membership, then that’s not an option for me, so [Zach] has more options. I think he could consider anyone if they’re American. Again, it’s just one more thing for him to think about, but we’ll see how it plays out in the coming weeks.”
Speaking of players resigning their DP World Tour membership, Donald clarified some comments made by Sergio García in late May when the two had a conversation about the Ryder Cup and that Donald told Sergio about his chances being nonexistent. In García’s words, he thought Donald told him he had “no chance” of making the team.
“That phone call, that’s not what I said exactly,” Donald said. “We spoke five months out, and he wanted some assurances that I probably couldn’t give him at the time, but I told him, ‘At no point would I ever tell you that you don’t have a chance, Sergio.’ He obviously didn’t think there were enough assurances from me, and once he resigned his membership, then he was out of the possibility for me to pick him. So I understand that he’s doing what he feels best and again I just couldn’t get my full assurances, but at no point did I tell him he had no chance.
“I had to give him a realistic view of where things were five months out, but I told him a lot could change. But ultimately it was his decision to resign his membership and do what he felt was best for himself, and I respect that.”
García, the all-time Ryder Cup leader in points, will be absent this year, along with fellow stalwarts Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
As a home captain this year on European soil, Donald also has input on the course setup. He’s taking an active role there.
“It’s just finding little things that we might be a little bit better at. Are we a little straighter off the tee? Do we need more rough? We have a template that’s been pretty successful and we won’t go too far away from that. It’s nice to have some ability to have some say in how the course is set up, and certainly those conversations started from Day 1 from when I was appointed captain.”
Donald, a four-time Ryder Cup player, knows that being on home soil with a supportive crowd will be a big boost for his team.
“I think the advantage comes more from being at home, being on a course that we’ve played a few times in the Italian Open. We know how it plays; we have familiarity with it. We know the demands that the course requires. I think that’s the main advantage for us, having the crowd behind us, which certainly that was lacking very much so a couple years ago. It will be a lot louder for us. It will be great for those who have not yet experienced a home Ryder Cup to feel that energy, to feel that crowd because they’re really important.”