Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald insists Europe pairings are not ‘set in stone’
By Jim van Wijk, PA
European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald insisted his pairings were not “set in stone” as he fine tuned preparations for Bethpage with all 11 present members of the team in action at the BMW PGA Championship.
Rory McIlroy, fresh from his victory at the Irish Open, will play the first two days at Wentworth alongside European team-mates Shane Lowry and Jon Rahm.
Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose will also be grouped together, along with defending champion Billy Horschel, while captain’s picks Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick go out with Hideki Matsuyama.
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However, Donald – himself playing with Alex Noren and Matteo Manassero – remained coy over whether much could be taken from the groupings at this weekend’s flagship DP Tour event.
“Will you get an idea of my pairings? Well, you can read into it however you want,” Donald told a press conference at Wentworth on Wednesday.
“There will be lots of different groups, different pairings playing together. Again, these things are never always set in stone.
“We always have a plan in place and another plan if things go in a different direction, so we will try and have a lot of options for the week.
“But obviously myself, Edoardo (Molinari), the other vice captains, we have already had many conversations about that and started to figure it all out.”
Rasmus Hojgaard replaces his twin Nicolai as the only change to the victorious side from Rome which will reassemble in New York later this month.
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Donald, though, maintained the biennial event would throw up its own challenges, no matter what experiences his team would bring with them into what was expected to be a hostile atmosphere as the Americans hoped to recover the trophy on home soil.
“It is two years since Rome and so I am excited about the continuity and having a team that is very similar to Rome, I think that is a massive benefit for us, but players change,” he said.
“Look at someone like Bob (Robert MacIntyre). He has become a much better player in the last two years.
“I didn’t see a similar option for foursomes, but potential there is this time around because of the way he plays the game now.
“You have to always consider sort of those things that not everyone is playing the same.
“People shift whether you are a good driver or approach player or a putter. Those things move around in your career and so you adapt to that.”
Donald added: “This is a different challenge (at Bethpage). Some of our advantages from Rome are certainly not advantages anymore.
“Again, a lot of my thinking revolves around crowd management and how we react as a team, but also, I try to approach this in a little bit of a different way in terms of communication amongst the players.
“Instead of just wait until the team is formed and then sort of get my messaging across, that process started 15 months ago.
“So again, those are probably the things that I felt like could be improved from Rome and hopefully they will see some good results.”
