Team Europe stars Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose have all hailed captain Luke Donald, who has refused to rule out leading the team for a third time in 2027
Luke Donald has not ruled out leading Team Europe for the 2027 edition of the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor after guiding his squad to back-to-back wins in the prestigious event.
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While chaos reigned for the majority of the weekend at Bethpage Black, thanks in part to the shocking and vile verbal taunts of the American support, the proverbial storm clouds cleared on Sunday, with the sun shining down on Donald and Team Europe as they defeated Keegan Bradley’s Team USA 15-13.
The 47-year-old, a four-time winner as a player and now a two-time winning captain, has received effusive praise from his players following the win in New York, with the trio of Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose all pointing to Donald’s attention to detail and meticulous planning as part of the reason they were able to celebrate well into Sunday night.
Fleetwood, the recipient of the Nicklaus-Jacklin award, wrote on X on Tuesday morning how Donald has armed his players like he did them for Rome, only this time, with even “more armour, power, knowledge and experience.”
“@LukeDonald led like he did in Rome but with more armour, power, knowledge and experience,” wrote Fleetwood on X.
“He deserves all the credit, we were just the pieces on a chess board.”
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Preparation for the moment was also something pointed out by Jon Rahm. Speaking in Team Europe’s post-Ryder Cup press conference, the Spaniard hailed Donald for his professionalism and attention to detail.
“There’s so many things that Luke has done outstandingly, professionally [that are] so perfect that it’s hard to say one [thing],” said Rahm after being asked about how Donald had helped Team Europe achieve back-to-back Ryder Cup wins.
“Without getting too much into it, the level of professionalism he’s shown us the last four years, his attention to detail and his poise, and his knowledge of the Ryder Cup and the game and what we do on the golf course day-in-and-day-out has made these last two Ryder Cup’s possible.
“He’s the captain of this ship, and he’s led us better than I can see anybody leading us.
“He’s set the bar extremely high for future captains.”
And those words of setting the bar high have been echoed by Justin Rose. “There’s probably a million decisions Luke has had to make to give us no decision,” said Rose of the meticulous nature of Donald’s preparations.
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“I’m blown away by the work ethic that he’s given this captaincy cycle, both of them.”
Donald himself has not ruled out leading Team Europe in Ireland at Adare Manor. “I’m never going to rule it [2027 captaincy] out right now,” Donald told Sky Sports recently.
“I need time to process. Like everything I do I go into detail about what the challenge is and what lies ahead.
“A lot of people thought I was crazy going a second time around. Why now? When everything went well in Rome, just walk away as a winner, but now I’ve obviously won home and away – that’s pretty special.”
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