Should Luke Donald decide against leading Europe for a third time in 2027, he will walk away having established himself as potentially the greatest captain the Ryder Cup has seen.
The Englishman followed Europe’s largely comfortable win in Rome in 2023 by becoming the first captain since Jose Maria Olazabal in 2012 to win the Ryder Cup on away soil last month.
The visitors went into Sunday at Bethpage Black seven points clear after a stunning performance over the first two days. Ultimately, they were able to win just one match in the singles and still win the cup.
With that, there will be plenty of decisions for Keegan Bradley to mull over as he continues to wait for his first opportunity to lift the Ryder Cup as a victorious member of Team USA.
What Luke Donald did at the Ryder Cup that Keegan Bradley would have surely never expected
In the months leading into Bethpage, it was difficult to know whether Bradley was at a disadvantage. Obviously, the event was set to be played on home soil – on a course the 39-year-old knew extremely well.
But he was up against someone who had experience of Ryder Cup captaincy. Donald’s players were asking him to stay on for 2025 before he had even lifted the trophy at Marco Simone.
The problem for Donald, however, was that it seemed that his playbook was there for Bradley to see. He had a successful blueprint for how to win the Ryder Cup. And he headed across the Atlantic with 11 of the 12 who had won last time out.
That is arguably what makes what Donald did in New York all the more impressive.
Of the nine different pairings Donald put together in Rome, just two were used again at Bethpage.
It was no surprise to see Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton stick together. The pair became part of the same LIV Golf team in the months after the 2023 Ryder Cup, so their bond has grown even closer.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood picked up where they left off in Italy. They have now won all four of the matches they have played together.
It is remarkable to think that Donald opted to not put Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland together at any stage. The pair won by a record margin of 9&7 against Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka two years ago.
He also decided against pairing Robert MacIntyre and Justin Rose in the fourballs. MacIntyre is not the same player, but they were unbeaten in two matches in 2023. Nevertheless, Rose only played alongside Fleetwood.
MacIntyre, meanwhile, only featured in foursomes in New York.
Europe showed they had the bravery to win the most highly anticipated Ryder Cup of all time
It shows that the Europeans had so much faith in Donald and Edoardo Molinari. It would have been easy to go to New York and push for the same pairings.
Everyone knew that Bethpage was going to be hostile. Team USA had learnt some of the lessons from 2023 by playing at this year’s Procore Championship to help them prepare.
Donald would have been forgiven for putting Shane Lowry with Sepp Straka again, or McIlroy with Matthew Fitzpatrick again.
Clearly, Europe’s superior golf over the first two days was decisive. But given the reputation Molinari has built over the last few years, it would have surely put the cat amongst the pigeons in the American team room when they saw the likes of Fitzpatrick and Aberg, and Hovland and MacIntyre sent out together in the opening session.
It showed that Europe had the bravery to move on from Rome’s plan.
It showed that Europe knew what it would take to go into the lion’s den and win the Ryder Cup.
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