Luke Donald is mulling over what makes a great leader when he remembers a conversation with his late father, Colin. Donald was 21 and had just won the prestigious NCAA Championship, breaking the scoring record set by Tiger Woods at the US college tournament. The boy from Buckinghamshire was the best amateur in the world.
“My dad always cared more about the kind of person I turned out to be than anything I accomplished,” he says. “I called him and he said, ‘That’s great. How’s college?’ He was happy for me, but he loved the Rudyard Kipling line about meeting triumph and disaster and treating those two impostors the same. If we’d lost the Ryder Cup but done it in the right way, I’d be OK with that. A lot of the anchors come from him.”
We are sitting in the dining room at The Bear’s Club, Jack Nicklaus’s exclusive enclave in Jupiter, Florida, that Donald has called home for more than two decades. It has been three months since Team Europe’s tumultuous victory in New York, the first away win since 2012, and there is a lighter air about their captain as he picks at a crab salad.
Europe’s captain left no stone unturned before the tournament, even hiring a comic — who called Hatton, front row, second left, a Tesco bouncer — to prepare his team for the barbs of the New York crowd
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In the weeks after Rome 2023, Donald woke in a cold sweat after having nightmares that the USA team had prevailed. The role of captain was even more consuming second time around given all the preparation for such a hostile crowd, but the 48-year-old left Bethpage with a sense of closure — even if the job may not be finished.
“In Rome I felt just as much pressure but this was more satisfying because it was a greater challenge,” he says. “It was a lot of stress, for sure, a lot of relief. I probably enjoyed the first one more because of the negativity in New York. That’s just not my personality. I shy away from that stuff.”
Donald is so even-tempered that he was ungraciously nicknamed “The Plodder” during his ascent to world No1 but, in his first in-depth interview since retaining the Ryder Cup, he is not afraid to voice his feelings about the PGA of America’s inability to control the boorish fans.
After Rory McIlroy, in particular, was subjected to a torrent of personal abuse, Don Rea, president of the PGA of America, had the audacity to suggest the atmosphere was “no worse than a youth soccer game”.
“That was disappointing because anyone who was in Rome and New York knew it was completely different,” Donald says. “Singing ‘Hats off to your bank account’ [as European fans did in Rome] is slightly different to ‘F*** your five-year-old’ or whatever it was, and this wasn’t just one or two guys, it was hundreds, maybe thousands.
The behaviour of Team USA fans became one of the most hotly debated topics of the Cup
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“As a leader, you have a responsibility. Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes and f*** up. Just own up to it. Just say, ‘We should’ve done more. This isn’t acceptable and we will do better next time.’ I would’ve loved to have heard that message rather than, ‘Well, it happens and it happened over there.’ I don’t think that’s what leaders should do.”
Donald’s own drive to become the best possible figurehead is remarkable for its obsession. Across both captaincies, he read more than 20 books about building winning cultures and he barely went a day in between them without speaking to a player in contention for the team.
“That was my goal. I didn’t quite accomplish it, but I was close,” he says. Although it would have been easy to rest on a winning blueprint, Donald, with the help of his stats guru, Edoardo Molinari, immediately set about “ripping up” the qualification system to ensure he could pick the best players for New York and preparations were already in full swing by the Scottish Open in 2024, 444 days before the first tee shot.
“My main focus was the crowd and how we deal with that,” Donald says. “We had a team get-together and I brought in Brian Johnson, who I’ve followed for ten years-plus. He has an app called Heroic, which is about leaning into the best version of yourself, and he talked about this theme of anti-fragility. Resiliency is being able to take it. Anti-fragility is when something really bad happens to you, you actually get stronger.”
“I wanted to keep getting in the players’ minds,” Donald says of his famously meticulous methods
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Initially, Donald had planned to get all the players on the app, but he settled on sending weekly emails to them instead to drum home the theme.
Johnson was far from being the only speaker Donald recruited. The performance coach Owen Eastwood, whose book Belonging was first on Donald’s reading list, was another influential voice. So too was Professor Geir Jordet, the world-leading expert on penalty shoot-outs, who visited the players at Wentworth shortly before the Ryder Cup to advise them about controlling their emotions under extreme pressure. “I just wanted to subconsciously keep getting in their minds,” Donald says.
There were other more unusual gimmicks that garnered attention — and a few scoffs too. At the Team Cup in January, Donald employed a comic to heckle players; Tyrrell Hatton was called an Amish farmer and a Tesco bouncer.
The players also tried VR headsets at Wentworth that simulated the 1st tee at Bethpage. The attention to detail extended to the team hotel, where Donald’s wife, Diane, made a number of adjustments, including improving the quality of the bed sheets, the duvets and the toiletries, as well as fashioning blockers to stop light getting underneath the doors. “She got a message from an American former player’s wife [who was staying at the team hotel] saying she didn’t sleep very well because the sheets were so thin, so sometimes those things can make a difference,” he says.
But Donald was not afraid to rock the boat a little, either. Throughout his career he clung on to perceived slights as fuel, much like his good friend Michael Jordan. Nick Price once pitied that Donald’s elegant swing didn’t have the power for the modern game.
Donald’s trait of using critique as motivation has always mirrored that of his friend and NBA icon Jordan
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Instead of chasing distance, Donald resolved to prove Price wrong by making his short game and putting so formidable — he went 483 holes without a three-putt — that a lack of distance off the tee was moot, and he finished top of the money list on the PGA and European tours in 2011. He credits that drive to Dave Alred, another famous performance coach.
“He stoked the fires a bit. You have a bit of an f-you mentality. It definitely gave me a bit more of a chip on my shoulder, and we tried to do that at the Ryder Cup,” he says. After the USA captain, Keegan Bradley, was filmed saying, “We are going to Bethpage to kick their f***ing ass,” Donald had the quote printed on the wall in the team room. He also used the new $200,000 stipend the American players received after the furore over Patrick Cantlay’s hat — he refused to wear one apparently in opposition to the team not being paid — in Rome as a provocation.
“Everything I’ve read on leadership, money is a motivator, but once you’ve got enough and you’re comfortable, it’s not the best motivator. It’s more intrinsic stuff,” Donald says. “Playing for a greater purpose makes a team play harder for each other than if you’re playing for a cheque that didn’t mean a ton. So if one team’s doing it and one’s not, I’m going to push on that a little bit. I could’ve not brought it up in my speech [at the opening ceremony], but it wasn’t really aimed so much at them. It was reiterating what our team represented.”
Another crucial aspect of Donald’s captaincy was his reliance on Molinari’s data. After Europe dominated the opening foursomes session, Bradley was criticised for putting Collin Morikawa and Harris English, who were ranked by Data Golf as the worst out of 132 possible options, out again on Saturday. Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley were rated as the third-least-compatible pairing if the latter teed off on odd holes, which he did on Friday.
Donald admits he “wrestles with the upside” of the idea of another stint as European captain
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“Data can be seen in different ways, so you have to be a bit careful. We have a lot of trust in what Edoardo does, so when we come up with the pairings, most of the time the players buy into it. They’re not trying to lobby to play with this or that guy. They trust we’ve done the work,” Donald says.
“Everyone was a little surprised with Morikawa and English going for a second time. If it didn’t work out and it was a weak pairing on paper, maybe you don’t run it back. That one and Henley going off first were the two things that we all kind of looked at each other.
“But we changed the [Bob] MacIntyre and [Viktor] Hovland one. On Friday, Bob went off the odds. Statistically it was a little better but, after the first round, Bob didn’t feel comfortable on some holes that went left-to-right, he likes to hit a cut, so they ended up changing and it worked out.”
One of Donald’s few regrets was putting out McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm for all five sessions. He was “smiling on the inside” that the trio performed so brilliantly in the face of such a volatile crowd after all their preparation, but the elation turned to exhaustion in the team room that evening.
“As genius as I looked as a captain, maybe I didn’t look so good on Sunday,” Donald says of the USA’s astonishing fightback when they rallied from 11½-4½ down, only to fall agonisingly short after Henley left his birdie putt short on the 18th green and Shane Lowry, in the eighth match, snatched the vital half-point to retain the trophy.
Donald says that Bradley, his counterpart at this year’s Ryder Cup, “is taking it a little hard. We haven’t had a heart-to-heart chat yet”
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As for McIlroy, whose wife, Erica, was left in tears behind the 18th green on the Saturday after beer was splashed over her, Donald puts the Northern Irishman’s chest-beating heroics of that febrile afternoon up there with his final round at the 2025 Masters. “I don’t think it was far off, just how much it took out of him,” he says.
Donald missed Lowry’s winning putt because he had fallen back to support Rasmus Hojgaard, the sole rookie. “It came up on the big screen and I was just standing there in silence with Justin [Rose] watching. With all the emotions — is it going to happen or is it going to be a complete disaster? — I didn’t really know how to feel. I just looked at Rosey and we had a big hug. It was just this void, like a weight off my shoulders,” he says.
No sooner had Europe lifted the Ryder Cup than the chants began for Donald to retain the captaincy. Rose seemed the likeliest successor but he wants to focus on his playing career. Donald has delayed a decision, but becoming the only European to captain three winning teams is clearly tempting him.
“I talked to a few of the players and everyone I’ve spoken to would like me to do it again. That means a lot. I’ve obviously thought about it, but I don’t feel like I’m in a big rush. My wife was a bit sceptical of me doing it in New York, but I really wanted to,” he says.
And what does Diane think about it this time? “She probably enjoyed the home one more too, and she loves Adare [Manor], she loves Ireland, so she would be all for it.”
Donald does not mention any drawbacks until coaxed. “I wrestle with what the upside is. I feel like I’ve proved enough. It is a lot of work. My eldest daughter has 2½ more years of school, so I’d be away a little bit more than I’d like before she goes to college. I’d like to understand if I’m able to pick the best players [a reference to the eligibility of LIV players like Rahm and Hatton]. Do I push my luck? I’m trying to enjoy this one. I’ll seriously think about it in the new year.”
Tiger Woods is the frontrunner to captain the USA in 2027 but Bradley recently said he would love the opportunity to redeem the defeat. He and Donald used to be “very close” and often used to play practice rounds and dine together on the road. They have not spoken at any great length since the Ryder Cup, though.
Coincidentally, just as I’m leaving The Bear’s Club, Bradley pulls up next to me at the traffic lights. “He’s quite a passionate guy with his words and how he feels. He seems to be taking it a little bit hard,” Donald says. “I’ve seen him a few times, brief chats, but we haven’t really had a heart-to-heart. Maybe one day we will.”
It is now a decade since Donald considered retiring from golf, four years after reaching the game’s summit. His form deserted him first, then the joy that had been the bedrock of his dedication.
“I can trace it back to 2014 and not getting picked for the Ryder Cup. I was a little bit depressed after that. When I was given the honour of going out first in the singles at Medinah [in 2012], no chance I thought that would be the last time I played in a Ryder Cup. You feel invincible,” says Donald, whose playing record is among the most formidable in the tournament’s history, with ten wins, four losses, and one half.
Donald says his wife, Diane, loves Ireland and so “would be all for it” were he to become captain there in 2027
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Donald was approached to work as a commentator for LIV Golf shortly after he had tumbled out of the world’s top 500 — an offer he flatly refused. “The Ryder Cup has obviously given me a lot back in the last few years,” he says.
Whether it is the beginning of a third and final act or the end of his captaincy, Donald takes great pride in the fact he has not changed. In his winner’s press conference in Rome, he became emotional talking about how proud his late parents would be, not necessarily of the fact that Europe had won but how he went about the captaincy, using the same anchors that were paramount from virtually the moment he first picked up a club.
“No matter what, I’ve stayed true to those values: being authentic, caring, having integrity,” he says. “My job has been to bring a bunch of individuals into a team mindset while reminding them of all the ways that they can win and give them confidence. I think I’ve done a decent job of that.”