He has the support of one of Team Europe’s leading men, but Graeme McDowell tells TG why he remains cautious about his chances of playing a role at Adare Manor…
Ryder Cup Europe have, it seems, thrown all their eggs into one Luke Donald-shaped basket.
The Englishman is still mulling over whether or not to remain as captain for next year’s 46th matches at Adare Manor, but his natural successor, Justin Rose, is still winning top-level tour events and keen for one more go as a player, and everyone else seems to be saying they hope the current incumbent stays on.
As he confirmed at last month’s Dubai Desert Classic, Donald has “a couple more months to decide”.
“They announce it sometime in March,” he added. And while that was certainly the case for the man he replaced, Henrik Stenson, that’s the latest a European Ryder Cup captain has been named since Bernhard Langer in July 2003. Most were confirmed in January, giving them 20 months at the reins.
Part of Donald’s dilemma is his legacy. Victory in Ireland would make him the first captain to win three in a row. But the 48-year-old remains unbeaten in a Ryder Cup, both as a player and as captain, and the temptation to call it a day there must be strong.
Another part is the ongoing issue between LIV Golf’s Ryder Cup players, notably Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who still do not know the outcome of any outstanding fines they may – or, indeed, may not – have to pay. Donald will need some persuading to put his unblemished record on the line without two of his star players.
It’s for this reason Ryder Cup Europe were forced to reevaluate their captaincy model, with Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and, of course, Stenson all blacklisted after defecting to LIV.
The first two of those names were put forward by Rahm in a recent podcast appearance. With the Ryder Cup being in Ireland, he explained, it would “make sense” for McDowell to do the job. He offered the same reasoning for Garcia in 2031, when the 48th matches will return to Spain. (For balance, Rahm also nominated Rose and Francesco Molinari for the role, so he has the next decade or so mapped out in his mind.)
It just so happens that TG have an interview lined up with McDowell a few days after Rahm’s comments were aired.
“I didn’t know that,” the Northern Irishman ponders quietly as he thinks carefully about how to respond.
Then he says something no one was expecting.
“I will openly say that I’ve spoken to a few of the relevant players that will be on the team next year, and I’ve asked them as to what their thoughts might be if it were to be possible, and [I got] a reasonably positive response.”
McDowell, understandably, isn’t naming names, and instead turns his attention to the reasons why he perhaps wouldn’t be able to take on the role.
“There’s a regulation in the European Tour rule book which would prohibit me from being able to do it – [as a result of] not taking my membership up in the last couple of seasons when I was eligible,” he explains. “So that’s a conversation I’d want to have.”
Another concern McDowell has is the ongoing animosity between LIV Golf and the traditional tours. Though, if the two Ryder Cups since LIV’s inauguration are anything to go by, this tournament is above that. As well as Rahm and Hatton, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau have represented their team in the biennial showpiece while being a member of the breakaway league.
McDowell, though, seems unconvinced. “I would not want to be in a situation where this whole thing took away from what the Ryder Cup should be, and the pureness of what the Ryder Cup is.
“I would hate for narratives and for bad feelings from the fan base to overshadow anything that should happen at Adare Manor.”
One reason, he adds, is the County Limerick resort owner, JP McManus. “What he’s done for me and my family, European golf and Irish golf, he deserves the greatest spectacle in the game.
“Look, it goes without saying, I’d love to do it. It would be a dream come true for me to do it. But I would just hate to bring any negativity to something that should be so pure.”
He pauses once more.
“That negativity is not within the players,” he adds. “Clearly, the media drives narratives. [The Ryder Cup] deserves to be something special, and if we can create a way for me to be the captain where it doesn’t take away from what it should be, then it goes without saying, I’m all in.”
Another note in the against column is the fact that, while McDowell’s record is nine points from 15 across four matches, he hasn’t played in a Ryder Cup since 2014, when he expertly mentored Victor Dubuisson through the experience at Gleneagles, and his two vice-captain stints came before Donald found his winning formula. That, though, is not a concern.
“I would do anything that was required of me to be a captain – like, anything,” McDowell says. “So we’ll see. There are some conversations to be had, and I’d like to be there in some shape or form, but it’s a little bit above my pay grade. It’s obviously a very high level of politics. I’ll speak to LIV about it and see how their conversations with [the DP World Tour] are going, because clearly Jon’s in an interesting situation with the fines.
“We’ve talked about the word ‘healing’, and I just hope we can continue to get there.”