The mistake Keegan Bradley cannot afford to make at the Ryder Cup after Luke Donald’s masterclass in Rome

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From the outside, it appeared that preparation was pivotal in setting the stage for Europe’s largely comfortable victory at the 2023 Ryder Cup, with Luke Donald leaving no stone unturned.

Luke Donald seemed to get everything right before and during the 2023 Ryder Cup. The bonding trips helped unite a team which included seven players who suffered a record defeat two years earlier at Whistling Straits, as well as four rookies.

Meanwhile, that momentum continued to build once the action got going at Marco Simone, with Europe preventing Team USA from winning a single match over the first day.

With that, it was no surprise that the European players were calling for Donald to stay on for two more years as he lifted the trophy on Sunday night in the Italian capital.

Keegan Bradley will be trying to second guess Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup plans

Some will believe that Keegan Bradley is at a disadvantage. Donald heads to Bethpage having built upon the foundations he put in place since his appointment was announced in 2022.

On the other hand, others will argue that is the exact reason that Bradley has an upper hand.

While the American’s captaincy is an unknown quantity, Donald has reason to stick with what proved to be a winning formula.

But perhaps there is the potential for Bradley to make a big mistake if he builds his plans around the idea that Donald will opt for the same pairings which brought Europe so much success two years ago.

Largely unchanged, but this is not the same European Ryder Cup team as 2023

It is easy to say that Europe will look incredibly similar in New York. Donald’s team includes 11 of the 12 players who won in Rome, with Nicolai Hojgaard the player to miss out. Hojgaard was the only European player to not win a match in 2023.

So there is a chance that Donald will rely on the tried and tested partnerships; the likes of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland, and Justin Rose and Robert MacIntyre.

However, given how meticulous Donald and Edoardo Molinari are, there is absolutely no chance that they will send the same pairings out without first considering whether they remain the best options to win the 14 points the visitors need.

While the names are virtually the same, the majority of the members of the European team are in a different place than two years ago.

The likes of Aberg, MacIntyre and Fleetwood have all won on the PGA Tour for the first time since the 2023 Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, Hovland has not been in the kind of form which made him arguably the best player in the world heading into Rome.

It would be a shock if Rahm and Hatton did not play together given that they are teammates on LIV Golf. Meanwhile, Fleetwood appeared to be a very good partner for McIlroy, with the Northern Irishman playing alongside so many different names over the years.

But Rose’s experience may now make him a better partner for Rasmus Hojgaard. And neither Shane Lowry nor Sepp Straka have been particularly impressive in recent months, so that may lead to some rethinking after they teamed up in both foursomes sessions.

It is also the case that Bethpage asks different questions of players than Marco Simone. So different combinations may be better suited to the extremely difficult Black Course.

Donald used 10 different pairings in Rome, with just one – Rahm and Hatton – playing together in a previous Ryder Cup.

It would surely be naive of Bradley, therefore, to think that he will not have a few surprises up his sleeve this time around also just because everything went so far two years ago.