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Luke Donald’s wildcard picks for his European Ryder Cup side have caused a lot of reaction. Many do not agree with the decisions of the captain of the European team. However, things must be accepted as they are. Ernie Els is one of those who supports Luke Donald, and he is aware of how difficult it is to make such decisions.
Ernie understands things from the players’ point of view as well, but simply things are such that someone has to stay at home.“Yeah, you’re always going to get criticised. I was when I had to make my selections. You’ve got to leave somebody out.
It’s almost obvious. But there’s always a plan by why you are making certain decisions. It’s really got to do with pairing, just the whole team concept. As long as players don’t take it personally, that will be good. But it’s hard for players not to sometimes take it personally because you give your whole life to playing Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, then you get left out.
It’s very hard on the player, harder on the player that gets left out, but it’s as hard on the captain because you have to live and die by your decision”. – Ernie said, as quoted by golfmonthly.com!
Ernie Els on captain’s responsibility
Being the captain of either the US or European teams is a big responsibility.
As a captain, you have to take care of many things and be focused 24 hours a day. Luke Donald is aware that his every move will cause reactions and potential criticism. Precisely because of this, no one doubts that Donald has prepared the team in the best way and that the European team can do a lot in Rome!
“Being on the team for many, many years, it’s everything (on the radio) from very lighthearted to very tense stuff depending on where you are in the matches. A lot of organization stuff going on, especially from management, management telling you where you have to be at certain times of the day, especially if you’re captain, the vice captains. It’s strategy, making sure that the players stay on their strategy that we planned.”
