Hungover Luke Donald says he'll 'consider' staying on as Ryder Cup captain

It’s the morning after the night before and Luke Donald, Europe’s latest winning Ryder Cup captain, is nursing a hangover as he sits down for a chat with a small group of golf writers in the lobby of the plush Rome Cavalieri hotel overlooking the Eternal City.

Winning Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald reads the morning newspapers at the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome the morning after leading Europe to victory in the Italian capital. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

“It was great,” said Donald of the celebrations that followed his team’s 16.5-11.5 win over the Americans in the event’s 44th edition at Marco Simone Golf Club on Sunday. “Yeah, I was walking around with the trophy most of the night. I went downstairs to the family party and saw friends and people who’d come here, people from the US, people from the UK, people I’ve known for a long time who’d come to support me and we filled up the cup many times with champagne and we were drinking out of it. It was a lot of fun. I think it was just after 4am when I got to bed, which wasn’t too bad. I slept, yeah, and woke up about 8 then my alarm woke me up about 8.30.”

As the home team savoured winning the trophy back after a record 19-9 defeat at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin two years ago, the players chanted “two more years” as they urged Donald to consider staying on as captain for the 2027 match at Bethpage Black in New York. “Not really,” replied the Englishman, smiling, to being asked if he’d reflected further on that possibility, having it was something he’d probably consider if asked.

Not so long ago, it looked as though Europe had a lengthy queue of future captains but only time will tell if Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell get that opportunity now after joining the LIV Golf League and, subsequently, resigning as DP World Tour members. They could come back into the frame after a new landscape for the game is mapped out in a Framework Agreement involving the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), but Donald deciding to stay on could solve a potential headache as far as that next Ryder Cup captaincy is concerned.

“I’ll obviously consider it,” replied the former world No 1 to being directly asked if he wanted to do it again in two years’ time. “I’ve certainly not given it any thought at the moment. I want to enjoy right now. I want to enjoy this week. It’s not an easy job. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of effort, a lot of thinking. So I would have to seriously sit down and consider that with my wife and my family. Obviously I could walk away, having done an amazing job this week – the players were really happy and we won and leave that as my legacy.”

Donald had set the tone for the match by delivering a slick speech at the opening ceremony. His side then pulled off an unprecedented 4-0 clean sweep in Friday’s opening session, held a record-equalling five-point lead at the end of the day then survived a nervy couple of hours in Sunday’s singles to extend a dismal run of the Americans having last won on European soil in 1993.

“Yeah, obviously very gratifying,” he said of his players feeling he should do it again in two years’ time. “They were great to work with. I think I created an environment and culture where they could succeed but when Friday comes, I have very little control. I really give them very little on the golf course, just the odd club on the par 3s. There’s not a lot I can give them.

“These are highly-skilled individuals. They know how to play golf. But I was proud that we did so well on Friday and Saturday. Those are the time when we are partnerships in fourballs and foursomes, especially foursomes. I mean, that is ultimate trust in your partner and to go 7-1 in foursomes was pretty special. That was the key, I suppose, to our victory.”

Donald played on two winning teams on US soil – at Oakland Hills on his debut in 2004 and in 2012 at Medinah, where he led the way in the last-day singles as Europe pulled off one of the greatest fightbacks in the event’s history. But he said of trying to match that feat as a captain: “It is a big task. So it's been 14 months of a lot of workflow planning, a lot of thinking, a lot of moving, a lot of zooms. So again, I'm not going to think about that right now. That's for another time.”

Referring to the situation regarding players who are Ryder Cup legends but had no involvement on this occasion, he revealed that he’d “got some nice messages” from Westwood, Garcia and Poulter but added: “We will see what happens in the future. That's to be decided. I really don’t want to go down that road right now. For me, this whole process, I just tried to control what I could control. I considered everyone that was available to me throughout this whole process.”

Rory McIlroy, with four points from five, was Europe’s top points-scorer in Rome while Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland also played like golfing gladiators. “Your superstars – No 2,3 and 4 in the world – have to perform and they did,” noted the captain. “No way the other guys can pick up that slack.”

Four rookies – Ludvig Aberg, Nicolai Hojgaard, Bob MacIntyre and Sepp Straka – also played their part. “The future is bright,” insisted Donald. “There are a bunch of guys that could have made this team that I would expect to be on the team in two years’ time. So I'm excited for the future.”

The only question to be answered is will Donald be there to lead them.