Luke Donald knows who he can trust, and who can crush the USA in their own backyard

It’s quite clear why the 2025 Ryder Cup is being billed as a great chance for Europe to win away from home, among other things.

The atmosphere is predicted to be raucous at Bethpage, we know that. We now know the players too, after European captain Luke Donald named his six captain’s picks on September 1.

You and I could’ve chosen the players that Donald chose. The six players he chose were entirely predictable and 100% understandable.

Luke Donald: Captains Picks

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Remarkably, the team that played in 2023 for Europe will represent the continent again in 2025, if we use the same family bloodline as the metric (Rasmus Hojgaard has replaced his twin brother Nicolai this year).

This is the way it has fallen by coincidence. In the two years since the Rome Ryder Cup, which Europe won, virtually no other European players have broken down the door, despite the best efforts of Marco Penge, Harry Hall, and Matt Wallace.

In his two-Ryder Cup captaincies, Donald has built a team he can trust and a team that can lean on the shared experiences of Marco Simone when they put another American team of superstars to shame.

In his picks, Donald took no unnecessary risks. Hall is a great putter, but what about the rest of his game? Would Penge’s game have stood up in America? Would a debutant like Wallace upset the balance of Europe’s pairings from 2023?

No risk was taken and uncertainty was eradicated – the same uncertainty the PGA of America orchestrated from the get-go when they not only appointed Keegan Bradley as captain, but encouraged him to become the first playing captain since 1963.

Having almost the same side as last time will bring endless benefits. Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg can reminisce about trashing Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9&7. Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka can draw on winning that first point together in the first session in 2023.

He has a bad Ryder Cup record, but Matt Fitzpatrick can look back on how stunningly he played in the first fourball match with Rory McIlroy. The ‘first Ryder Cup point’ monkey is off his back, and don’t forget, this will be his fourth start for Team Europe.

While the likes of Hall, Wallace and Penge have many qualities, this is just bad timing. Donald and Team Europe know what they want, and they are taking a core of players who know how to win the Ryder Cup and know how to handle the Americans.

What Donald represents is calm and poise, the same approach he had in his playing career. His silky, almost slow-motion swing allowed him to spend 56 weeks at World No.1, not to mention forming a stellar Ryder Cup record. He won’t give you much for a headline, just so long as he delivers the goods.

Step one was winning the 2023 Ryder Cup on home soil, and now, the somewhat unexpected yet exciting step two became winning an away event as the first repeat captain since Bernard Gallacher.

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The picks Donald made were percentage plays, figures he can rely on and provide a motivational presence in the team room. Team Europe likes percentages, none more so than vice-captain Edoardo Molinari whose stats-based approach was instrumental in picking the winning pairs in each of the first two days of the last Ryder Cup.

Here we have more continuity. Molinari, Thomas Bjørn, José María Olazábal and Francesco Molinari are all back as Donald’s assistants. They are all on the same page, and they all know what they are doing with a clear mind and have done for months. Can the same be said for the American side?

US captain Keegan Bradley put on quite a performance when making his captain’s picks last week, leaving fans on tenterhooks as he threatened to choose himself in his own team. Sure, that decision was made behind the scenes and on the day, everyone knew the script. But from the outside looking in, it was a confusing experience.

I’ve written about the chaotic last 12 months, where Bradley tried as hard as possible to choose himself. He admitted he was considering it after winning the Travelers Championship in June, and if it weren’t for a late-season resurgence from Cameron Young, who was eventually chosen, Bradley might’ve been left with no choice but to etch his name on the team sheet.

It was a completely left-field appointment by the PGA of America and one that Bradley himself wasn’t expecting. It seemed the broadcasting of Bradley’s omission from Team USA in 2023 on Netflix allowed him to bank enough sympathy to not only be involved in 2025, but to be skipper.

Donald and Team Europe were allegedly happy enough to oblige new Ryder Cup legislation, which would’ve allowed Bradley to delegate his duties to a vice-captain if he chose to play.

Could you add some more wood to the fire, please, Luke? Let’s build those flames and watch it burn.

A golf coach will tell you one thing, regardless of ability: Get the basics right. Where Donald excels here, Team USA’s brains are still working out the Ryder Cup theorem.

The continuity will trounce the chaos, for my money.

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What did you make of the Luke Donald captains picks? Do you agree with them? What would you change about the Europe captains picks? Tell us on X!