Who is Team Europe’s captain for the Ryder Cup – Luke Donald?
A four-time winner as a player at the Ryder Cup, Luke Donald will now captain Team Europe in Rome…
Luke Donald will lead the European Ryder Cup team at Marco Simone in September, but who is the Team Europe captain?
Donald has achieved a lot in his golfing career. He was World No.1 for more than a year, and featured in four Ryder Cups, winning all four with Team Europe.
The 45-year-old was announced captain of the European Ryder Cup team in August of last year, following the removal of Henrik Stenson from the role after the Swede made the move to LIV Golf.
“I am incredibly proud to be named European Ryder Cup Captain for 2023,” Donald said at the time of the announcement.
“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. I feel extremely privileged to have been given that responsibility and it is a responsibility I do not take lightly.
“Some of my best experiences in golf have been in the Ryder Cup and I would not swap those for anything. It is an event like no other and I cannot wait to create more special memories in Italy next year.
“I love everything the Ryder Cup embodies, from the camaraderie and companionship of being part of a team, to the history of the contest, but most of all playing for something bigger than yourself.
“Rome will be a fantastic host city, and I have always enjoyed spending time there. It is a city rich in history and hopefully we can create some of our own in 14 months’ time.”
Donald was a key member of the European team for a decade, winning the trophy in all four of his appearances in the Ryder Cup.
He made his debut back in 2004, before playing in 2006 and 2010. His final Ryder Cup appearance came in 2012, when he led Team Europe out on Singles Sunday, as they came back from 10-6 down to complete the ‘Miracle at Medinah’.
Donald’s Ryder Cup legacy continued into the most recent couple of editions, as he was Vice Captain for Thomas Bjorn in 2018, and then Padraig Harrington at Whistling Straits in 2021.
Away from the Ryder Cup, Donald had a distinguished career, sitting atop the Official World Golf Rankings for a total of 56 weeks.
He created history in 2011 by becoming the first man to top the season-long money lists on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour in the same year.
Donald’s resume includes a pair of wins at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and a win at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He has 17 worldwide victories in his professional career.
Can Luke Donald lead Team Europe to a bounce back Ryder Cup victory after the drubbing in 2021? Let us know your thoughts with a Tweet!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
