Meet OW Luke Donald: European Ryder Cup Captain
Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2023 Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, Rome, Italy
The 2023 Ryder Cup will be going head-to-head next week as the highly-anticipated event heads to Marco Simone in Rome for the 44th edition of this famous tournament.
The course is hilly and has been dubbed "brutal" by US Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson. His European Counterpart, OW Luke Donald said the testing topography of the course would be a factor in his four-balls and foursomes pairings on Friday and Saturday next week.
Donald celebrates his famous shot on the 17th hole during day two of the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, which he described as “one of the most memorable of my life.”
OW Luke Donald represented Europe in the Ryder Cup four times as a player, being part of a winning team on all four occasions, including in 2012 when he led Team Europe out in the Singles, securing the first blue point on the board in the ‘Miracle at Medinah’.
In 2004 when Luke played Oakland Hills in the Ryder Cup, the US bar bill at the end of the week was $600. The man now tasked with leading the European team said: “Ours was like $30,000.”
He also has served as a Vice Captain in the last two editions of the biennial contest, under Thomas Bjørn in 2018 and Pádraig Harrington last year.
The 44 year old’s impressive individual playing career includes holding the position of Number One on the Official World Golf Rankings for a total of 56 weeks, and in 2011 he became the first player in history to top the money lists on the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) and the PGA TOUR in the same year.
When Luke was named 2023 European Ryder Cup Captain he said: “I am incredibly proud to be named European Ryder Cup Captain for 2023. It is truly one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed upon a golfer, to lead a team of your peers and be an ambassador for an entire continent."
We at RGS are incredibly proud too.
Find out more about Luke in this final episode of Ryder Cup: Defining Decisions, where he breaks down the choices he's made as captain as he looks to win back the trophy in Rome.