You may have seen, and had reason to recall, the moment in the Netflix series, Full Swing, earlier this year when Keegan Bradley, the American Ryder Cup captain in New York last month, addressed his victorious teammates after victory in the Presidents Cup In Montreal last year with the words: “We are going to Bethpage to kick their f***ing a**es”. (Apologies for the asterisks.) As we know, that prediction rather came back to bite Bradley on the bum.
There has been much comment about the European captain, Luke Donald, going on and doing the job for a third time in Ireland in 2027. I’m not so sure, terrific as he was. (Incidentally, I mentioned in my last blog that Donald has been on the victorious Ryder Cup team all six times he has been involved; that also goes for the two Walker Cups he played in.) From when Europe became competitive in the Ryder Cup, in 1983, Tony Jacklin led the team for four matches in succession. Then Bernard Gallacher did it three times. Seve Ballesteros was the captain in Spain in 1997 and had been announced as captain for 1999 at Brookline. The day after victory at Valderrama, he declared he would not be captain because he wanted to qualify as a player.
Since then, pre Donald, each stint has been one-time only. Donald has agreed it was better for him first to do the job in Europe, which he did wonderfully well in Rome in 2023. If he goes again at Adare Manor, does that mean he should do 2029 in the US as well? Obviously I am not in the decision-making loop (for which be thankful) but at a guess I think there is a strong chance that Francesco Molinari might get the nod for 2027. And, hey, his brother, Edoardo, could comfortably carry on being the stats guru.
There was also a mild kind of outrage on the part of some Americans, Bradley included, that Europe was able to gain a half-point from Viktor Hovland despite him having to sit out his singles with Harris English due to an injury he sustained in the Saturday morning foursomes, which had also ruled out his intended participation in Saturday’s fourballs. But those are the rules. Maybe the rules should be changed to ‘if you’re injured, you lose’ but as of now the deal is what it is.
From a historical perspective, it was hard to be anything other than amused at the protestations. The first time the ‘envelope’ came into play was at Kiawah Island in 1991. Steve Pate, a member of the US team, was injured in a car crash on the way to the opening ceremony. Over the first two days his sole appearance was in the fourballs on Saturday afternoon. His captain, Dave Stockton, later withdrew him from the singles – after it was known who he would be playing: Ballesteros, the best player on either team that week. The US thus got a half-point out of Pate for his uncontested match with David Gilford while Wayne Levi was offered up to be Seve’s sacrificial lamb.
At Bethpage, Europe won 15-13. At Kiawah, the US won 141/2-131/2. A 14-14 score at Bethpage would have left Europe retaining the trophy. As would have a tie at Kiawah. Just saying! Perhaps each team could in future name a 13th man in case a player has to withdraw from the singles? Matt Wallace, among others, might have liked that idea this time around.