The last few months have brought some good news for the Team Europe Captain. Several players who will very likely form the backbone of Team Europe have established themselves in Tour tournaments. Shane Lowry won the DP World Tour flagship tournament.
Luke Donald, results
Wentworth’s PGA Championship is not won by chance, If you then win it by leaving Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm behind (albeit just a little and over the distance of 54 holes), it means that you are in good shape.
A month later, Jon Rahm took home the home Open title for the third time in four years, equaling Severiano Ballesteros’ record. Adding then the victory of the Tour Championship in Dubai, he confirmed that he is quite on the ball.
The week before Rahm’s confirmation, Tommy Fletwood ended a three-year fast by winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge ahead of Ryan Fox. Fleetwood has just started his Ryder Cup journey (two appearances, 2018 and 2021). But he has already shown that he has the characteristics of a team player.
Then came the victory of Viktor Hovland in the Hero World Challenge (moreover back to back, he was the defending Champion), very good news for Team Europe. The Norwegian, despite being only 25 years old, plays with the confidence of a veteran.
In Ryder Cup, this feature is worth a lot. And we come to Rory McIlroy. He won the FedEx Cup, taking the Tour Championship. First in the standings in the Race To Dubai. Fresh winner of the CJ Cup (also a back to back for him).
Let’s say that Luke Donald has very clear ideas about the cornerstones on which the team that will take the field at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club will be based. The real challenge that awaits him and his assistants is the choice of picks, that’s where victory will be played.
Although his father was Scottish, Luke Donald was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (therefore he describes himself as half-Scottish). He began playing with his brother, who soon became his caddy. He immediately began winning his first tournaments at the age of 15.
He attended the Royal Grammar School (High Wycombe) in his youth. He soon migrated to America to study at the College Prospects of America under golfer Martin Laird. He soon made a name for himself, so much so that the major American colleges wanted him on their team in exchange for a scholarship.
He was also accepted at Stanford, but couldn’t get in due to problems not related to golf. So he “fell back” to Northwestern University in AD 1997, where he studied art, and where he even joined a fraternity. Under the orders of coach Pat Goss he won the NCAA Division I singles title in 1999, breaking Tiger Woods’ record.
On May 29, 2011, after Virginia Waters’ victory at the BMW Pga Championship (in the last shot against compatriot Lee Westwood, who was also vying for the world record as well as for the Tournament), he became the Number 1 in the world ranking for the first time in my career.
