Luke Donald is in Dubai to play the Desert Classic. There was some speculation that he would take advantage of this big week on the DP World Tour to announce whether he will be captain for the third time in the Ryder Cup or if, on the contrary, he prefers to step aside and make way for the next. Well, it seems there will be no logic to it. Everything indicates that it will not be this week when he makes his decision, at least not publicly.
The English captain himself, victorious in the recent editions in Italy and Bethpage, has commented in statements to the Daily Mirror that he will use this week to sit down and talk with the DP World Tour, specifically with its head Guy Kinnings, to clarify some aspects that will help him make a definitive decision.
According to Ten Golf, even if nothing concrete is revealed this week, all roads lead to Donald being the captain in Ireland. For the third time. No one imagines anyone else in charge at Adare Manor other than the Englishman. Firstly, because there are no alternatives that fully appeal to the European circuit, once Justin Rose made it clear that it is not yet his time, secondly, because the players have openly requested his continuity, and thirdly, because Donald himself is more enthusiastic about the challenge of being the first European captain in history to win three times in a row than bothered by all the difficulties and inconveniences that the task may bring.
“No one takes four months to make a decision if it’s to say they don’t want to be captain,” assures a more than authorised source. Nor has any of the possible alternatives been put on alert. It seems that the DP World Tour is very calm because they are convinced that Donald will accept.
The main obstacle Donald sees to repeating as captain is that it is being held in Ireland. The Englishman has been living in Florida for some time and has his entire family there. The captain’s duties would push him to travel quite frequently to Ireland, and his daughter, for example, is only two years away from going to university. He is concerned about not spending time with her just before she takes flight and leaves the nest.
Therefore, the conversations that Donald and the DP World Tour will have this week will go in that direction. The big question Luke is going to ask the European circuit is the following: “How many weeks will you want me in Ireland in the next year and a half and how can we avoid it being so many…?” Returning to logic, this does not seem like an obstacle so great that it cannot be overcome. It is normal for them to reach an agreement since Donald has shown more than enough in the last four years that if it is about dedicating himself to the task, he will spare no effort. In fact, he recently confessed that when he first accepted to be captain, he vowed not to let a single day pass without at least talking or writing to a potential team member or his assistants. And he has kept it.
Be that as it may, it seems that we will have to wait to see if the final decision is made. In those same statements to the Daily Mirror, Donald has commented that he has given himself until mid-March, as the deadline, to announce his decision.
