Luke

Donald

There wasn’t anything too shocking with these picks but there were certainly cases to be made for a few names outside of the bubble. The most notable omission was Adrian Meronk who finished just 186 European points outside of auto-qualifying while also sporting a win and runner-up finish in three tries at Marco Simone GC. The Europeans opted for youth instead, picking the 22-year-old Nicolai Hojgaard who also has a win at the host course. The 23-year-old Ludvig Aberg also cemented his spot on Sunday with a breakout win at the Omega European Masters. The former World No. 1 amateur has six top 25s in nine worldwide starts since turning pro this summer. These six picks will join the six auto-qualifiers to make up the European squad. Those auto-qualifiers ended up being Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, and Matt Fitzpatrick.

The 2023 Ryder Cup Captain, Luke Donald, is extremely excited for this event as it will give him a good look at potential captain’s picks for the upcoming Ryder Cup. “We are very close to finalising who the captains are going to be. I hope to be very involved with the picks. I’ll be talking to the captains, who those will be, and myself and my Vice-Captains - I’m probably giving that away, but it probably will not be Thomas or Edoardo at this point.” All of the details are yet to be finalized but it’s set to be 10-man teams going head-to-head at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

The Englishman spends most of his time in the States but still makes his way back to Europe for about a month each season. “I wanted to be over in Europe a little more and obviously I’ll be there next week and in Italy as well, but this week was a great chance to come over here and spend a little bit of time with my Vice Captains Thomas Bjørn and Edoardo Molinari as they’re both in the field.” His reference there is to the 2023 Ryder Cup where he’ll be the captain of the European side. Donald hasn’t landed a top 10 anywhere since the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship but he’s still optimistic about the state of his game. “My game is better this year to where it was last year, there is certainly room for improvement, I’ve been working hard on my game and hope to be competing while I’m keeping an eye on my players as Captain. I’ll work hard on it and hopefully we’ll have some good weeks.”

“It really never crossed my mind to say no because this is truly an honor for me,” Donald said Monday during an appearance on “Golf Today.” “I’ve had so many great Ryder Cup moments and memories. I think being a captain is like a lifetime achievement award in a way.” The announcement comes after Henrik Stenson was stripped of his captaincy last week after signing with LIV Golf. As far as how players will qualify for the Euro squad, Donald noted the qualification process is still TBD, and he specifically avoided speculation on status of LIV Golf players. “It’s something that’s certainly up in the air; there’s no real clarity of it right now,” he said. “There’s some legal situations going on. Once things become clearer, I’ll be able to answer those questions a little bit clearer.” Visit the Golf Channel link below for more details and comments from Donald.

Despite his string of poor results, Luke Donald has struck his irons adequately, only to be let down by his putter. A head scratcher when looking back at the Englishman’s peak days, the 2012 Transitions Champions winner may turn back the clocks this week in Tampa. A venue where he has historically played extremely well, Donald has made 9-of-10 weekend appearances, boasting not only a victory, but four additional top-10 finishes. Finishing on the first page of the leaderboard in half of his appearances here, his latest of such results came in 2019 via a T-9 effort, the last time this tournament was played in March. Gaining strokes on the greens in each March edition of the Valspar Championship, this could be a time for gamers to put some faith in Donald to play himself into the weekend.

The former World No. 1 currently finds himself at 529th in the OWGR. He’s kicked off the new year with paydays at the Sony Open in Hawaii (T27) and Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T42) with a missed cut sandwiched in between. Next up is a showdown with TPC Scottsdale. He boasts a 3-for-8 record at the WMPO but slow starts have plagued him in the desert with over-par rounds in all but one appearance (T18/2003). Donald hasn’t landed a top 10 anywhere in the world since a T10 at the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship which limits his appeal in most fantasy formats.

Playing this season on a career earnings exemption, Donald has opened the new campaign with a T46 (Butterfield Bermuda Championship) and missed cut (WWTC @ Mayakoba). Why has he resorted to a career money exemption? The Englishman has landed outside of the top 180 in the FedExCup standings in four straight seasons. The former World No. 1 has just two worldwide top 10s since the start of 2018 so gamers can safely leave him off their radar unless they are in need of a salary saver. Donald is 2-for-3 at this event with those cuts made going for finishes of T36 and T43.

The 43-year-old Englishman was making his second appearance as a vice captain at the 43rd Ryder Cup over the weekend, this time backing up Europe’s Padraig Harrington. Donald turns his focus back to playing this week at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where he’ll make his ninth start. However, Scotland marks just his second European Tour start of the season for Donald, who missed both cuts earlier in September at the BMW PGA Championship and the Italian Open. He also struggled on the PGA Tour over the 2020-21 season, making just six cuts in 23 starts (two top 25s) and finishing at 184th in the FedExCup standings. In eight previous starts at the Dunhill Links, Donald has made six cuts with a best finish of T-3 in 2004. He finished T-10 in 2019 for his fifth top 10 in the event.

After making two consecutive cuts to end his 2020 calendar year, Donald’s play fell off a cliff as the calendar flipped to 2021. Failing to make it to the weekend in seven consecutive starts, the Englishman has since found an inkling of form that got him to the top spot in the world of golf. A made cut at the Valspar Championship was backed up with a T-13 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson and a T-31 finish at the Palmetto Championship. After missing consecutive cuts at the Travelers Championship and the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Donald found some form in Minnesota. En route to T-16 performance, Donald’s iron-play resembled that of old, posting +6.4 Strokes Gained: Approach. He will look to lean on those clubs once again at the Barracuda Championship where birdies will be needed due to the Modified Stableford format.

The Englishman owns 79 top 10s in 378 events, but a T9 at the 2019 Valspar is his only one in his past 58 starts. Prior to that, it was solo 2nd, a then-fifth-runner-up in nearby Hilton Head at the 2017 RBC Heritage as a 36-hole co-leader. This is the South Florida resident’s first time in the top 10 at the three-quarter mark since T3 at last season’s Honda 24 starts ago, where he ultimately finished T11 (70-66-71-72). On 12 (of 14) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, he lost 0.079 strokes off-the-tee but gained 2.571 approaching. The 43-year-old, who arrived off a season-best T13 four weeks ago at the Byron Nelson (65-73-66-67), camouflaged one bogey with five circles, each from inside of 11 feet, gaining 0.936 with the flat stick.