Luke Donald has an extremely strong group of players at his disposal for the showdown with the United States at Bethpage Black next week.
Donald guided his Ryder Cup team to a dominant victory in Rome two years ago and he will be looking to become only the second European captain to win away from home over the past two decades.
Excitement is building ahead of the showdown at Bethpage Black, with both teams desperate to get the win.
Donald himself has plenty of reasons to be excited ahead of the Ryder Cup, with three of his players earning top-five finishes at the BMW Championship last week.
As Rory McIlroy suggested, winning a Ryder Cup away from home is one of the toughest things to do in all of sports.
However, Ryder Cup captain Donald will still fancy his chances of guiding his team to a successful defence of the trophy.
That said, he may well be wishing that Alex Noren was playing on his team at Bethpage Black, rather than acting as a vice-captain.
Luke Donald would drop one Ryder Cup player and replace him with Alex Noren
Dan Rapaport truly believes that Donald would mix things up if he was allowed to make one change now.
While the European team looks incredibly strong, they do have one glaring weakness, as harsh as that may sound.
Rasmus Hojgaard has been struggling recently, aside from his tied second finish at the Omega European Masters.
The 24-year-old Dane’s performance in Switzerland very much came out of the blue and he was brought back down to earth with a T-128th finish at Wentworth last week.
Rapaport explained how he believes Donald would draft Alex Noren into his Ryder Cup team to replace Hojgaard if he had the chance to do so.
He said: “Rasmus Hojgaard missed the cut pretty badly, plus five.
“I feel like there’s a big drop off between the rest of the guys and Rasmus Hojgaard. I think if you offered captain Luke Donald the chance to re-pick his team, I think he would choose those same 11 guys plus Alex Noren.
“Alex Noren is an assistant captain on the European Ryder Cup team and he has won two of his last three starts.“
Noren won the British Masters just over two weeks ago and he was then victorious at the DP World Tour’s flagship event on Sunday, winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth after getting the better of Adrien Saddier in a playoff.
European vice-captain Noren, 43, has struggled terribly with injuries over the past year, and he didn’t make his first start of the season until May.
And Rapaport is spot on. Donald would surely have the Swede on his team if he had the chance to make one change now.
Hojgaard is obviously a very good player but his recent form will undoubtedly be a big concern for Donald, and indeed the European fans.
United States Ryder Cup team and Keegan Bradley have their own problems
Hojgaard seems like a potential weak link for Europe and Sepp Straka’s poor recent form will definitely be a concern for captain Luke Donald.
However, Keegan Bradley has some issues right now as well.
Justin Thomas’ form has been hugely worrying, and his 69th place finish at the Procore Championship did little to ease the concerns about his game right now.
Meanwhile, Collin Morikawa seems to be completely lost with his game at the moment, and he has been really poor for five or six months now.
It has to be said as well that Thomas and Morikawa are both really poor fits for the challenge that awaits at Bethpage Black.
However, the good news is that there are still 10 days to go before the Ryder Cup kicks off, and that is a long time in golf.
A lot can change for the American and European teams, but there are definitely one or two causes for concern on both sides.
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