Luke Donald is in Dublin to compete in the Amgen Irish Open, a DP World Tour event held at the K Club. It is the first official appearance of the Ryder Cup captain after announcing his six picks for the big battle at Bethpage. One of the major uncertainties regarding those picks was what would happen with Sepp Straka. The Austrian didn’t play the BMW Championship of the FedEx Cup citing a personal issue, performed poorly at the Tour Championship, and hasn’t signed up to play the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next week. All of this left his presence in the Ryder up in the air. However, Luke Donald chose him and today he finally explained the personal issue he is facing.
Specifically, he has just had a child who was born prematurely, and both he and his wife were very worried. However, the progress has been positive, and the captain has been very optimistic. “I don’t think it has been officially communicated yet, but he and his wife welcomed their baby a few weeks ago prematurely. Everything is going extremely well with the baby. He just doesn’t want to be so far away. And I think that’s fair. I’ve had many conversations with Sepp. He is very motivated. He will continue to work hard on his game. He will join us on the practice trip. But that’s the reason he won’t be at Wentworth,” Donald explained. Mystery solved. Straka won’t be there next week, but the reason is perfectly understandable.
Similarly, Donald explained the decision to leave Sergio García out of the team. “I think he’s disappointed, like everyone else who felt they might have had a chance to make the team. Again, I don’t tell people what to do with their schedule, except in very specific cases (because he withdrew from playing in Ireland after being left out of the team). He knew perfectly well that the Irish was after the qualification, after the team was chosen. Unfortunately, in Sergio’s case, I felt that his level of play wasn’t good enough to make it into a team with so many people playing so well.”
He also had words for Robert MacIntyre and his new position in the team regarding Rome. “The profile of some players has changed. I had some rookies who now have more experience. Just look at someone like Bob MacIntyre, who had a great Ryder Cup in Rome, but who came in a bit green regarding what could be expected. I think someone like that has grown a lot as a player. You can even see it from a statistical point of view. In Rome, a rookie like him, in his first Ryder, you probably wouldn’t risk him in foursomes. But now he has two years of experience. He has improved as a player. His characteristics and which parts of the game he excels in have changed. Again, that’s just one example. The same goes for all 12. You have to see how they’ve changed in these two years and form the pairs accordingly. That’s why I say it won’t be exactly the same. It would be a mistake to repeat the same pairs as in Rome because the players are different and have new strengths and strategies. Again, we’ve been studying all this and will continue discussing it in the coming days.”
Donald confesses he expects a challenging Bethpage, although never at the level of a US Open. Regarding the formation of the foursome pairs, he emphasizes the importance of adapting to the ball. They are two players with one ball. Either they play the same one, or one of them will have to adapt to the other’s, something that doesn’t happen in fourballs. “There are some players who are very specific with the ball they play. Others adapt quite well. But you can reach a point where you have a great match of personalities, a good statistical match, they adapt to the course in evens or odds, and suddenly the ball doesn’t work. It is, without a doubt, one of the factors to consider and can make a difference.”
