Luke Donald joins a handful of potential European Ryder Cup players in the field for the Scottish Open this week.
The Renaissance Club plays host to the Scottish Open, the latest tournament in the 2025 PGA Tour season.
It provides many players with a final chance to fine-tune their games for The Open Championship, which takes place next week.
Royal Portrush returns as the venue for The Open, which was won by Xander Schauffele at Royal Troon in 2024.
He is in the field for the Scottish Open, along with the likes of world number one Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
Luke Donald provides 2025 Ryder Cup selection update ahead of Scottish Open
And they are joined by Donald, who has provided a selection update for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
He told BBC Scotland: “These are big weeks against the strongest fields so you want to see the top guys play well.
“There are some guys that have pretty much staked a claim for their place in the team but there are a few spots definitely open and these weeks are big for those guys.”
And discussing returning as the European captain, Donald noted: “The guys wanted me to come back and to have another chance.
“Not many people have ever had that chance and certainly I understand that it’s a great honour and a great privilege, but also a very tough challenge being in New York.
“It’s hard to win away Ryder Cups but having the continuity of a repeat captain, a lot of the guys know me, know how I work.
“They already trust in my abilities to lead them and I’m happy, in general, with how things are shaping up. You’re always continually trying to learn.
“It needs a little bit of a different approach, especially with how to deal with the crowd. That’s really my role – getting them into a good frame of mind and giving them the reasons why I think they can win.”
Luke Donald says what ‘amazing’ Rory McIlroy is like inside the Ryder Cup locker room
Donald has also been speaking about two players in particular ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
The Englishman has taken time to discuss Northern Irishman McIlroy and Scot Robert MacIntyre, who both have a superb record at the Scottish Open.
Speaking of McIlroy, who won the event in 2023, Donald said: “What Rory did at The Masters is great for our team, for our morale. He’s always going to be an amazing leader inside the team room as a player.
“It’s just so many consistent weeks where the top, top guys seem to be playing at a high level. You need that ultimately if you want to win. Without that, it’s almost impossible.”
And discussing 2024 winner MacIntyre, he said: “It (the 2023 Ryder Cup) helped him really grow as a golfer and gave him the belief that he could perform with the very best.
“When you make that transition from playing mostly in Europe to playing over there, it is difficult. The fields are deeper. It’s harder. But he was still consistent and I was watching his stats quite a lot.
“Even from when he qualified in Rome to where he was before the second place in the US Open, his stats were quite a bit better.
“He won twice last year, in Canada and here. I saw the improvement in statistics and it was only a matter of time before he had a really, really good week and he almost pulled it off.”
MacIntyre currently occupies fourth spot in the European Ryder Cup standings, while McIlroy has already qualified.
The Masters champion will make an eighth successive appearance later this year, while the US Open runner-up shone on debut with two-and-a-half points won in Rome.
Like McIlroy, Scheffler has qualified for the US Ryder Cup team, who will be led at Bethpage Black by Keegan Bradley.
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