Luke Donald admitted his heart was in his throat on Sunday at Bethpage Black as the Americans’ furious Ryder Cup rally came up just short, allowing Europe to hold on for a 15-13 win.
But while Donald might have started to sweat Sunday as a flurry of red went up on the board, the outcome was only momentarily in doubt. The Europeans entered Sunday singles on Long Island with a massive 12-5 lead over the Americans after dominating the first two days, thanks to Donald and his team’s near-flawless plan. While American captain Keegan Bradley made several curious decisions with his pairings during the first two days of the biennial event, Donald and Europe pressed all the right buttons to take command of the competition. In foursomes, the Europeans’ data-focused approach yielded a 6-2 edge. In four-ball, Donald and his team relied on Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose to have enough in the tank to carry them. The result? A 5.5-2.5 edge for Europe.
To hear Donald tell it, captaining Europe to a road win was simple. He got the best out of McIlroy, Rahm and Fleetwood, while the Americans’ stars failed to do the same for Bradley.
But Donald’s rise to becoming one of the greatest Ryder Cup captains in history is, of course, more complex than rolling out a group of stars. Others have done that and failed spectacularly, especially on the road.
Donald’s success lay in the details. Every. Last. One.
After captaining Europe to a convincing win in Rome in 2023, Donald again pressed all the right buttons at Bethpage to become the fifth European captain to win on foreign soil. As the European celebration commenced, Donald’s team spoke about his attention to detail, which included changing the shampoo at the hotel, getting new bedding and covering cracks in the doors so his team could get better sleep and recover better.
“I really have committed myself to this job because I feel I owe it to the players and I owe it to the Ryder Cup, which has been so special to me. I’ve had so many incredible experiences,” Donald said on Sunday. “So yeah, I’ve had to kind of put my own game a little bit to the side, and every day I’m trying to think about things that could help us, come up with different things that might just give us a little edge.
“My job is literally to give these guys a better chance to win. It can be as simple as some very small things.”
Those details breed confidence in Donald, his staff and their plan. Rory McIlroy doesn’t play better because he has a better shampoo, but his belief and trust in Donald and his blueprint allow him to play more freely than a U.S. side that plays tight.
A lot is made about all the decisions that go into captaining a Ryder Cup team. Some have been successful, like Donald and Paul Azinger, and those who have flopped, like Zach Johnson and Tom Watson.
Of course, most of the success comes at home, where you have control of the course setup and can ride the wave of energy provided by your crowd. To win on the road, especially in front of Bethpage fans that crossed the line many times over the three days, is something entirely different. Donald, who was a member of the last European team to win on American soil in 2012, understood how difficult that task would be and set out to give his players the little extra juice they would need to weather the Long Island crowd and defeat a talented American side.
Donald’s secret wasn’t in analytics or Le Labo shampoo, but in his understanding that his job as captain was to provide his world-class players with the belief that they could etch themselves into history. When you fuel the world’s best with unbridled confidence, the rest often takes care of itself.
“Well, our theme was we were trying to win for a fifth time away,” Donald said. “We talked about it at the beginning of the week. The practice shirts were based off the wins we had already had away: ’87, ’95, ’04, 2012. Everything we did was sort of centered around that, and to make the guys feel that we had done it quite often. In ten Ryder Cups since ’83, we had won four of them and we had come damn close three other times. This wasn’t an impossible task. We knew it was going to be difficult. We wanted to inspire them to know it could be done.
“My job, again, is to give them the reasons to make them believe that they can win.”
This, of course, could have all been very different.
Donald was not the initial European captain for the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. That was Henrik Stenson, who was stripped of his captaincy after leaving to join LIV Golf. The post went to Donald on short notice. He aced his first Cup and backed it up by leading Europe to a resounding victory on American soil. Perhaps the Europeans should send a gift basket to LIV Golf.
With no clear captain waiting in the wings for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland, calls for Donald to go again started as the champagne started flowing.
“Two more years,” Jon Rahm said on Sunday.
“Let’s do it again in Ireland,” Shane Lowry bellowed.
Donald just smiled.
“No comment,” he said.
At that point, there was no need. If Luke Donald wants to go again, the job will undoubtedly be his. But that was a conversation for another day.
On Sunday, Donald’s leadership and culture did the talking, as they had all week. And all that was left was the celebration.
