Donald Reportedly Under Pressure To Make Decision On Bethpage Park Captaincy

6 months ago by Comments Off on Donald Reportedly Under Pressure To Make Decision On Bethpage Park Captaincy

It is being reported that victorious Rome Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald is under pressure to make a decision without further delay if he wishes to remain in charge in leading the European Team to the States in two years time at Bethpage Park in New York.

No sooner had Donald led his team to a Roman victory rout, and there were biostorious calls among his dozen players of  ‘two more years, two more years’.

And the calls for Donald to remain on as only a fourth repeat European Team captain were being strengthened after Justin Rose, who will be aged 45 come the 2025 Ryder Cup, indicated he was not interested in being in charge for the 45th team leadership role.

Of course, this news of announcing a new European Team captain prior to the end of the year has been normal practice in recent years including confirmation of Thomas Bjorn’s appointment on December 2nd, 2016 for his 2018 captaincy while Padraig Harrington was announced on December 8th, 2019 for the 2020 captaincy but was then put back to 2021 due to Covid.

Donald already has the backing of Europe’s top points scorer in Rome as Rory McIlroy labelled Donald one of the best captains he has served under while fellow Irishman Paul McGinley, and who led Europe to glory in 2014 at Gleneagles, also said Donald has his vote to remain as captain.

However, according to a report appearing in The Telegraph, Donald has been given until the end of the year to decide if he wants to take the reins again.

“We want to announce the captain by the end of the year, so Luke does not have that much time to decide, although we have left him in peace while he discusses it with his family, because it is a big, big commitment. There is a process, but everyone knows that if Luke wants it, Luke gets it. Let’s just say, the signs are promising.”
The only other European captains to hold the team reins for successive Ryder Cups have been John Jacobs (1979 and 1981), Tony Jacklin (1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989) and Bernard Gallacher (1991, 1993 and 1995) are the only golfers who have captained Team Europe more than once.

 



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