The Donald detail: 'We won't need to change the bed linen at Adare Manor', cracks Shane Lowry

'The doors to our hotel rooms had a big crack that let in light. We brought things that covered the light. We put different shampoos that had a better smell'

Mon, 29 Sep, 2025 - 13:13

Tony Leen

BACK-TO-back Ryder Cup winning captain Luke Donald had revealed some of the detail that his management team brought to European success in New York – right down to changing the shampoos and bed linen in the players’ New York hotel rooms.

At their post win media conference at Bethpage Sunday night, Donald spoke of how he had totally immersed himself in the captain’s role.

“I really have committed myself to this job because I feel I owe it to the players and I owe it to the Ryder Cup which has been so special to me. I've had so many incredible experiences.

“So I've had to kind of put my own game a little bit to the side, and every day I'm trying to think about things that could help us, come up with different things that might just give us a little edge. We came into this in New York, and we knew New York was not going to be easy. It was rough. It was brutal at times out there. It really was. It was nasty sometimes.

"When you prep these guys enough and you communicate enough with these guys and you give them a plan and an idea and a theme and a motivation, they don't really need motivating, but you know, the theme causes the cohesion of the team. I was very fortunate to have 11 of the same guys from Rome. My job is literally to give these guys a better chance to win. It can be as simple as some very small things. I'll give you an example.

"At the hotel rooms this week, the doors to our hotel rooms had a big crack that let in light. We brought things that covered the light. We put different shampoos that had a better smell.”

Interjected Rory McIlroy: “Le Labo if anyone is wondering. Really, really nice.”

Continued Donald: “We changed the bedding because the beds weren't very good, and they just had sheets, and we created much nicer beds, so guys could sleep. They could have more energy. Those are just little things.”

Added Ireland’s Shane Lowry: “We won't need to change the bed linen at Adare Manor, I can tell you that.”

“No, 1,500 a night,” laughed Donald. “It's just taking the time and having the care that you want to do everything you can to kind of give these guys the best opportunity. You want create an environment where they can succeed. These are 12 amazing players, we know that. You're just trying to, again, put them in a position where they feel comfortable.”

ATTENTION TO DETAIL: Rory McIlroy at Adare Manor. Pic: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

On the question of detail and themes for the week, Donald added: “We were trying to win for a fifth time away. We talked about it at the beginning of the week. The practice shirts were based off the wins we had already had away: '87, '95, '04, 2012. Everything we did was sort of centered around that, and to make the guys feel that we had done it quite often. In ten Ryder Cups since '83, we had won four of them and we had come damn close three other times. This wasn't an impossible task. We knew it was going to be difficult. We wanted to inspire them to know it could be done.

My job, again, is to give them the reasons to make them believe that they can win. So that was really our theme.”

Added the Europe captain: “Ryder Cup weeks are the best weeks of our lives. We talk about this all the time. Those individual accolades are fun. Individually, we want to achieve as much as we can. Rory has achieved so much in the game. His place in history is set. But I think those weeks we spend together are the ones we remember the most and the ones we cherish the most because of the time we get to spend with each other.

"That's a big part of my captaincy is to create an environment where these guys are having the best weeks of their lives, honestly. We'll always remember this. We'll always go down in history.

"We talk about all the people that came before us that paved the way for us. Now future generations will talk about this team tonight and what they did and how they were able to overcome one of the toughest environments in all of sport.”