‘Donald banking on experience for Ryder Cup bear pit’

Luke Donald is continuity captain for Europe, not just because Bernard Gallacher became the continent’s first repeat skipper in 1995.

For Europe’s attempt to defend the Ryder Cup in what, he claims, will be a Bethpage “bear pit” at the end of this month, choosing 11 of the 12 who won in Rome two years ago makes perfect sense.

In the 161 – 112 victory over Marco Simone two years ago, all six of his wildcard selections participated: Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, and Matt Fitzpatrick.

The only change is Rasmus Hojgaard’s twin brother Nicolai, who won his debut through automatic qualifying. In Ryder Cup history, there has never been such a lack of player rotation between teams.

And while Marco Penge’s prodigious hitting, Harry Hall’s world-class putting, and Matt Wallace’s passion could all have been advantages, Donald is relying on experience for this task.

Donald told BBC Sport, “It is extraordinary, and even more extraordinary that we recently switched our brother for another.” I never imagined that Rome would be the place where we’ve changed one initial.

Donald wants to find the formula that can give him the first away win since the 2012 “miracle at Medinah” by utilizing that sense of consistency. The skipper is doing that by getting his team ready for the anticipated hostile environment.

Of course, having those memories, those feelings about what we accomplished as a team in Rome is pretty special, he said.

However, I want to approach this with a different perspective, with a different set of eyes, to present this as a unique challenge. This will not be Rome’s style.

“We’re entering the bear pit,” the statement read.

So the approach may be changed, but the personnel may be essentially unchanged. Donald continued, “We have to approach this with a really refreshed view of how we’re going to handle it.”

This was my first thought twenty-seven months ago when I was elevated to the position of captain once more. What have been the shortcomings of previous away Ryder Cups, and how can that be fixed?

I’ve approached it from a different angle of conversation with the players, understanding what the environment necessitates, and thoroughly researching both those factors and best practices.

As a captain, I want to leave these players with fond memories. We must do it in Rome, and hopefully we must do it in New York, giving people a week to remember.

And I thought Rome turned out to be pretty good. Therefore, making this week even better is a big task.

Donald would not know whether he would have preferred Keegan Bradley, his opponent’s player, to have declared himself the playing captain.

The 47-year-old European skipper remarked, “I’ve always tried to keep my leadership around things that I can influence, and that was completely out of my control.

He is one of their best players, they are certain. And if he played, he would be strong.

We also understood that trying to balance both would be difficult if he made the decision. However, they appear to have many plans in place.

He has chosen his course. He has determined that he will succeed in his position with plenty of talent.

“I have a good relationship with Keegan. He’s a good friend of mine, and I am aware that he will try to get his troops pretty fired up.

However, we now enter the fake war, a four-week buildup that will see both teams gain competitive reps on either side of the Atlantic.

This week, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, and Rory McIlroy compete in the Irish Open. The team will compete in Wentworth’s BMW PGA Championship the following week along with the rest of the team.

The majority of Bradley’s lineup competes on the PGA Tour at the Procore Championship in Napa, California, on that day.

In the intervening period, there will be a lot of discussion, with neither side overly interested in winning the Bethpage showdown.

Donald has already begun. On paper, they appear to be very strong, he said. That is a good home advantage. So I still think we are “underdogs” in my opinion.

But as expected, armed with potential upsetting the circumstances.