Luke Donald to hold talks with Ryder Cup executives as he eyes third tilt at captaincy

Potential captain Justin Rose expected still to play.

A THIRD TILT: Luke Donald will hold talks with senior officials at the European Tour Group this week in Dubai, as the Englishman edges closer to a third stint as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain. While no announcement is imminent, there is a rising sense Donald will seek to make history by leading Europe to three Ryder Cup successes in a row. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Luke Donald will hold talks with senior officials at the European Tour Group this week in Dubai, as the Englishman edges closer to a third stint as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain. While no announcement is imminent, there is a rising sense Donald will seek to make history by leading Europe to three Ryder Cup successes in a row.

Donald, who is in the field for this weekend’s Dubai Desert Classic, has taken time to consider his position since Europe retained the trophy at Bethpage in September. The former world No 1 had already been the captain when Europe prevailed in Rome two years earlier. “I think it’s Luke’s if he wants it,” said Shane Lowry, a key member of the European team. The next Ryder Cup takes place at Adare Manor next year.

Uppermost in Donald’s thoughts is the commitment required for a third tenure, placed against his family life. There is also an element of golf politics at play. A date is still to be set for Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm to have an appeal heard against sanctions implemented by the European Tour Group for their participation in LIV Golf. That scenario has potential to be both messy and extremely relevant in Ryder Cup context, with Rahm in particular believed have no intention of paying fines. Hatton and Rahm would ordinarily be central to a European Ryder Cup defence.

Justin Rose, who was seen as a contender to succeed Donald, has designs on playing at Adare. The only other viable option is seen as the Italian Francesco Molinari. “Does he want it or not? I’m not sure,” added Lowry of Donald. “It’s a big undertaking for him and he’s obviously been very successful. Obviously there’s a huge carrot dangling there to go three in a row and be the only person to do that. But that’s up to him. He’s here this week. I’m sure he’ll have conversations about it this week.

“Is there a template there? Probably yes. But I think the last two Ryder Cups and the continuity of it all was amazing and it obviously will be good to have that for Adare Manor.

“It is his decision. It is a big undertaking for him, and it’s also a big undertaking for his family because he will be travelling a lot more. He’ll be in Ireland a lot obviously getting ready for it. When you’re doing a home Ryder Cup, there’s a lot more planning with you and your wife and stuff. I’d certainly love to see him as a captain.” 

Lowry has shrugged off any sense of controversy attached to Brooks Koepka’s upcoming return to the PGA Tour. Koepka has departed the LIV scene after four seasons. “I think it’s good for him that he wanted to get off LIV and he got back really quickly,” said Lowry. “Like I think it’s good for the PGA Tour as in Brooks is going to play a lot of the smaller events. So that’s going to add to those.

“I don’t say I don’t care because that’s a headline. But like I don’t really mind about any of them [coming back]. It doesn’t bother me.”

On Sunday, Lowry missed out on winning the Dubai Invitational on the final hole of the tournament when he found the water off a wayward bunker shot. That evening, he felt like just sitting in his hotel room but roused himself to get out and meet some friends. 

"Kind of tried to have as good a time as I could, but you kind of go to bed that night and you wake up thinking, what if, you know, what could I have done differently," said Lowry.

"Even yesterday was a bit of a slow day for me. I came out here and hit some balls and played nine holes. Just trying to get it out of my system really. But I feel good today. I think speaking to people closest to me over the last day or so, like you can only take positives from it, really. I played great last week, haven't played in a while. First tournament of the year. It's nice to get the year off to a great start and hopefully it's a sign of things to come for the rest of the year."

Lowry said Sunday's calamity did hurt.

"Did it hurt as much as like a really big event, a major or something? No, absolutely not," he said.

"I still want to win. I still tee it up every week wanting to win. And that's what's hard about this game, isn't it. There's plenty of players that played last week that are over on the range now trying to find their game, but they didn't feel as bad as I did leaving Dubai Creek Sunday evening.

"That's the funny thing about golf. I've probably played close to 400 tournaments in my career, and I've only won seven. You lose a lot more than you win. So you get used to losing (laughs) as a professional golfer.

"There's certain weeks where you finish fifth and you're happy, or third and you're happy, but more often than not, you leave a tournament on the Sunday evening and you're not happy with yourself.

"You get used to it and you learn to deal with it and move on and look at the future."

Guardian