There was no great shock in anything Luke Donald said when completing the 12-man European Ryder Cup team with his wild-card picks on Monday. The six automatic qualifiers had been led by Rory McIlroy and five of them had played in the victory in Rome two years ago. The one exception was Rasmus Hojgaard, who effectively took the place of his twin brother, Nicolai.
The next six in the standings were Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace. The first five of those were in Rome, too. The only question facing Donald, it seemed, was who to omit from that half-dozen in order to make way for Jon Rahm? The unlucky loser turned out, as widely expected, to be Wallace. The end result is the same team sheet that lined up in Rome; just a different first name for the Dane on this occasion.
Donald was keen to emphasize the changed circumstances this time around, playing in the States rather than at home. “It’s a different animal,” he said. “It’s a different challenge.” Of course it will be a very tough assignment to retain the trophy at Bethpage later this month. Very tough indeed, but not without comparatively recent precedent.
The last time the United States won in Europe was in 1993. Since then, however, Europe has won three times in the States – 1995, 2004 and 2012. The latter, of course, was the ‘Miracle of Medinah’, the latter being the name of the Chicago course where the visitors clawed back a 10-6 overnight deficit by trouncing the hosts in the singles. No man contributed to the European cause that week quite so emphatically as Ian Poulter. He won four points out of four, most famously making birdies on each of the last five holes to enable him and McIlroy to win their fourball match against Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson at the 18th.
A couple of weeks ago, Poulter made four consecutive birdies late on in the final event of the 2025 LIV Golf season to retain his place on the circuit for next year. The following day, his son, Luke, was awarded a place on the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team that will contest the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup at Cypress Point this coming weekend. (If only for the views of the extraordinarily beautiful golf course, you have tune in to Sky to watch this.) If he takes to team golf with anything approaching the same fervour as his father, then perhaps Luke and his underdog colleagues might have a fighting chance.
Back to impending events at Bethpage Black. The US Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Bradley, played in the match at Medinah. He also played at Gleneagles in 2014, where the Americans were also defeated. Only three Americans have previously played on three losing teams without ever being on a winning one – David Toms, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson (who in fact extended his unwanted record to four). By not picking himself, when many people thought he would/should, Bradley has ensured he won’t be completing a foursome. On the other hand, he has given wild cards to three guys who were similarly favoured last time and repaid Zach Johnson with just two wins and a half from ten points contested. Bradley will be hoping for more than that.