At this time in the Ryder Cup cycle, Europe captain Luke Donald would normally be in New York for what the marketeers grandly call the “Year To Go Celebrations”. After all, Thursday is exactly 12 months before the biennial brawl begins at Bethpage Black.
However, due to the Presidents Cup taking place, Donald will attend what will now be billed as “the 50 weeks to go celebrations” in the Big Apple on October 7.
It is far from ideal and just another indication of the ludicrously-packed professional schedule, but at least it gives the Englishman a chance to sit back and keep track of this week’s pertinent proceedings in Madrid and Montreal and analyse his potential team and pairings.
Granted, much can change and most probably will and it should be remembered that at this juncture in the build-up for Europe’s victory in Rome last time, Ludvig Aberg was not even on the radar.
Yet part of the fascination with the Ryder Cup is continuously trying to work out the respective merits of the opposing side at any given time and despite Donald’s experience and undoubted intellect he would not be human if he was not already drawing up playing plans for the three days on Long Island, where Europe will try to win a ninth match from 12, but only a first away fixture in 13 years.
As he watches the Spanish Open on the DP World Tour, he will be intensely relieved to see Jon Rahm in the field and playing in Thursday’s first round. The two-time major winner almost made himself ineligible for selection by refusing to pay the fines he has picked up for jumping ship to LIV Golf for this season.
A few hours before the deadline, Rahm appealed the sanctions and, after his wife Kelley gave birth to their third child on Monday, he was able to travel over from Arizona to tee it up at the Club de Campo and knock off one of the three events he still needs to fulfill the minimum requirements for remaining a Tour member and thus available for Donald – either as an automatic qualifier or as a wildcard.
The problem has not exactly disappeared because if the appeal is heard before the Ryder Cup and Rahm loses – which he will – then he would be in default if he did not pay up fines which by that stage will be working their way towards the £2 million mark. Yet the overwhelming sense is that the can will be kicked down the road under the convenient mask of tortuous legal proceedings and Donald will have everyone he wants at his disposal. These will include another LIV rebel Tyrrell Hatton, who is also in the Spanish capital this week.
So, too, is Aaron Rai, the ever developing Wolverhampton golfer who, after finishing fourth at Wentworth on Sunday and having broken his duck on the PGA Tour in August, is up to 22nd in the world and is odds-on to be part of the Donald Dozen. Rai, 29, is an impressively consistent golfer and looks a natural for the foursomes. Certainly, Donald would be glad to have him.
As for the others putting up their hands, Rasmus Hojgaard overhauled Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open two weeks ago and former teen phenom Matteo Manassero is wonderfully resurgent, while Niklas Norgaard has made dramatic improvements. However, Donald might baulk at having too many rookies and understandably so. Bethpage is no place to blood a first-timer.
Much will be said and written about the feared public course and which team it suits, but this will not be the Bethpage beast to which we have become accustomed. US captain Keegan Bradley will surely ensure that one of the toughest tracks in the game is set-up generously to produce birdies, simply because he will want to get the home support roaring.
The challenge for Donald’s men will be to cope with what is likely to be the most hostile atmosphere in the near-century existence of the match.
“It’s become harder and harder for away sides to win,” Donald’s predecessor Padraig Harrington told Telegraph Sport. “And although this has something to do with the home captain getting his own set-up, I’ve come to the belief that the main factor is the home support and making it uncomfortable for the visitors.”
There are fears the scenes could boil over into the ugly and in Bradley they have a fiery character at the helm, who is desperate to see US dominance restored. Yet he has scores to settle and also wants to play which could be a nightmare for the PGA of America – the body that runs the US arm of this golfing behemoth – who were foolish in the extreme to appoint a 38-year-old major-winner operating near the top of his game.
If he carries on his good form – he won a FedEx play-off on his penultimate start and is 13th in the world – Bradley might need to stand down as skipper and if he refuses, the US cause would be in turmoil. McIlroy insists that player-captaincy does not work in the modern age and he is spot on.
Bradley appears in the Presidents Cup against the Internationals – the rest of the world, not including Europe – and Donald will, of course, be interested in the action from Quebec. In truth, however, the Internationals have little to no hope. They have won only once in the previous 14 editions, and are severely weakened by the stupid PGA Tour-enforced ban on LIV players.
Blessedly, that will not apply in the Ryder Cup. Last week, the PGA of America announced that golfers on the Saudi-funded circuit will be eligible and with Bryson DeChambeau in tow, they appear yet more ominous. The US must be considered huge favourites, but we have read that particular script with delight before.
