Luke Donald is on his way to becoming a Ryder Cup god, and it is all thanks to LIV Golf

As a player, Luke Donald had five different partners across his four Ryder Cup appearances for Europe.

Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley – the majority of whom will never experience the honour of being the continent’s captain in the biennial match with America.

After winning in 2023 and 2025, Donald is on the edge of true greatness as far as golf’s best team event is concerned. With a feverish Irish crowd behind him, he has the chance to win three Ryder Cups in a row as captain, which no one has ever done.

The infinitely popular Donald takes the reins again in 2027 when Europe hosts the USA at Adare Manor, 15 years after Europe miraculously won the Ryder Cup at Medinah.

Huge credit for that comeback is owed to Poulter, who made five consecutive birdies in the final five holes in the final fourball match on day two in Chicago, to take the score to a 10-6 deficit which they then overturned in the singles.

Poulter was 36 years old when his eyes were popping from his skull that evening. It would’ve been a certainty that 15 years on, he would’ve captained Europe at least once in that time. There’d have been no betting on the matter.

The same goes for Lee Westwood, who beat Matt Kuchar in his singles match that year, and played three more Ryder Cups after that. The former World No.1 and European icon played in 11 altogether, but he is 53 at the end of April, and has no prospects of stepping back into the dressing room of a team that he served so proudly.

Again, this idea would’ve been inconceivable. The same goes for Sergio Garcia, who is the record points scorer at the Ryder Cup and achieved this when beating Rickie Fowler in the Sunday singles at the 2018 Ryder Cup in France.

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In 2022, these stalwarts joined the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League. In 2023, they resigned their DP World Tour (DPWT) memberships after the DPWT earned the right to fine players for competing in conflicting tournaments. You can’t play in the Ryder Cup unless you are a member.

A rule that was introduced in 2018 stated players cannot be a European Ryder Cup captain or a vice-captain if they decline membership of the European Tour (DPWT) or fail to fulfil their minimum event obligation in any season.

Barring a significant rule overhaul, these players can never be Ryder Cup captains.

While we should not forget how impressive Donald has been in leading Europe to win home and away Ryder Cups, we also cannot ignore that he has been filling the massive void that was left by players signing for LIV.

Even if the aforementioned guideline didn’t exist, the bridges were still burned a long time ago. Henrik Stenson was removed as European captain for taking a lucrative offer of Saudi riches, which led to Donald’s first appointment.

Westwood and Poulter have been no strangers to voicing their opinions on social media, which is their right, but haven’t been quite conducive to starting a peace process.

Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer are in the same boat. The former secured the points needed to take the Cup home in 2010 in Wales, and the latter nervelessly stroked the crucial putt that cemented that 2012 comeback. But their Ryder Cup futures were up in smoke when the former LIV CEO Greg Norman came calling.

Years of experience in the European dressing room can no longer be harnessed, albeit due to their own actions. This is a key reason why Donald is on the brink of history, and this is a reason why he follows in the footsteps of Dai Rees, Tony Jacklin and Bernard Gallacher as European captains to lead three times in a row.

But while I say Donald has benefited from circumstance and fortune, Team Europe would’ve been faced with a real crisis if the former World No.1 wasn’t any good at his job.

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Luke Donald: 2027 Ryder Cup could cement a legacy that might never be topped

After being hammered at Whistling Straits in 2021, Europe and Donald faced a daunting task two years later in Rome, even if it was on home turf, to wipe away their tears and try again. Using a multitude of strategies to promote cohesion and togetherness, and integrating the statistical mind of Edoardo Molinari, Europe won comfortably, then performed out of their skin to win at Bethpage last year.

There is plenty of literature that doubts what a Ryder Cup captain actually does, and if they matter, once the balls are in the air. And while much of that discourse is digestible, there is absolutely no doubt that Donald leaves no stone unturned and controls every possible thing he can control before the golf starts.

A home Ryder Cup was a kind beginning to his captaincy tenure, even if it was after a thrashing in Wisconsin. The real test came at the abusive, hideous cauldron that was the Black course on Long Island in September, where Donald’s 12, the same 12 that played in 2023 except a different Hojgaard twin, silenced the savages and gladly won away from home for only the third time this century.

It is a fantastic appointment by Team Europe, but it is necessary.

Justin Rose is arguably still playing the best golf of his career. Donald could pave the way to 2029, when Rose will be almost 50.

“We didn’t have too many conversations. We have seen each other a few times, and obviously in the media he (Rose) made it quite clear that he wasn’t really interested in doing the captaincy, and probably rightly so. We just saw him win a few weeks back,” Donald said to NCG upon starting his third captaincy.

“He’s playing at a very, very high level of golf. And I think we saw two years ago with Keegan trying to play and being a captain. It’s tricky. It’s not easy to do.

“So I think while he continues to play at a high level, he should definitely concentrate on trying to be a player for the Ryder Cup. He gave us so much as all my players did the last couple times, and if he can keep up the form he’s showing, he has every chance of being a player again in.”

In 2031, Shane Lowry will be 44, and so on. The succession plan will look more inviting. But while there is no Westwood, Poulter, or Sergio now, numbers are thin on the ground, and there was only one direction to look in.

Donald’s Ryder Cup legacy has been shaped by this most turbulent period of division in the sport, but he’ll take it.

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