Luke Donald vows familiar Europe Ryder Cup team will take ‘different angle’

By Carl Markham, PA

European captain Luke Donald insists the defence of their Ryder Cup will not be “rinse and repeat” despite his team featuring an unprecedented 11 members of the victory from two years ago.

There were no real surprises in his selections of Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg, Matt Fitzpatrick and Sepp Straka to join automatic qualifiers Masters champion Rory McIlroy, newly-crowned FedEx Cup winner Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Bob MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton.

That brought together all but one of the players who triumphed in Rome 16.5-11.5 and even the odd man out, Rasmus Hojgaard, is a familiar face as he replaced his twin Nicolai as the final member of the team.

Retaining 11 of the previous team is a record for the Ryder Cup, beating the 10 by Great Britain and Ireland in 1973, and while that continuity will be a benefit Donald knows a Ryder Cup on foreign soil presents a different prospect – particularly somewhere as hostile as Bethpage in New York.

So for the last two years he has been making plans to “come at it from a different angle” as they seek a first European victory in America since the Miracle of Medinah in 2012.

“Just because we have a very similar team doesn’t mean we are going to roll out the same pairings or the same line-up in foursomes and four-balls,” said Donald.

“This isn’t certainly a question of rinse and repeat from Rome. I think over a two-year period, these players do change, their profiles change, and we’ll adapt to that.

“The strategies and thought processes I’m trying to come at in this one is quite different to what we did in Rome.

“I knew I had to come at it from a different angle. Different challenges require different strategies and this has been in the back of my mind since being appointed for a second time.”

Donald opened lines of conversation with a number of key players months ago in order to help them get in the right mindset.

“The more you can talk about it, the more you can get it in their heads, the more they can start to prepare and be ready for that environment,” he added.

“For me, as fun and as good as Rome was, I want to make this an even better experience for them.”

The atmosphere at Bethpage has long been a topic for discussion, with New Yorkers expected to bring a different level of hostility to the contest.

Rahm, however, is ready for what that entails. The Spaniard will be playing in his fourth Ryder Cup and he is such a big-occasion player – he had two top-10s in this year’s majors and only Hatton and Hovland scored more points than him in Rome – he was rewarded with a captain’s pick despite finishing 24th in the European rankings due his status as a LIV golfer reducing his opportunity to earn points.

“I haven’t needed a pick before so this is the reality. Even getting the call from Luke felt so much more today,” he said.

“I’m not going to lie and say that I’ve been perfect with handling my emotions with the crowds in the past but I think the more I’ve experienced, not only in the Ryder Cup but in regular events, the better I understand how to handle things.

“Ninety-five per cent of the fans out there want me to lose and they are going to try their hardest to cheer against us and say things we don’t like.

“But at the same time, there are some creative people out there that are fun and if you can use some of the funny things they say – though they can be hurtful – in a good way you can almost use that energy to help you out.”

England’s Matt Wallace, who missed out on a captain’s pick in 2018 despite three victories that season, suffered more heartbreak as despite finishing 12th in the European rankings he lost out to accommodate Rahm.

The 35-year-old was in tears in his post-round interview after finishing joint-second at the Omega European Masters on Sunday knowing he was going to miss out again.

“I called him 10 or 15 minutes after that emotional interview and I felt very emotional for him. That call was tough but to be honest they are all pretty tough,” said Donald.

“It just shows what the Ryder Cup means to these guys and how they are trying to desperately make the team and be a part of it.”