Luke Donald has given a sign of how he’ll set-up the course for this 12 months’s Ryder Cup with a purpose to give Europe the absolute best likelihood of regaining the trophy from Group USA.
The Europeans took a savage beating with a document defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021, however now they’re again on house soil – the place the USA haven’t received for 30 years.
Whereas all of the speak has been about staff choice and the way forward for the Ryder Cup with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia resigning their DP World Tour membership – the course was the main focus for Donald in Rome.
And simply as Thomas Bjorn did at Le Golf Nationwide in 2018, Donald is course set-up to play an enormous half in a European victory.
With Donald and a number of other European staff hopefuls enjoying the Italian Open at Marco Simone Golf Membership this week, the captain says that he’ll be seeking to tighten up the fairways for the Ryder Cup match and put a premium on accuracy – which labored nicely in Paris final time.
“Since enjoying it final 12 months, we checked out just a few totally different fairway strains, bringing in just a few fairways just a little bit tighter,” stated Donald.
“The template for European golf is to have a barely narrower golf course, just a little bit extra tough, not greens that get too quick as a result of that is clearly what the US guys are at all times used to.
“There’s not an entire lot we have now modified however we have now added a few bunkers to create alternatives for higher driving. I really feel like Europe has good drivers of the golf ball.”
Donald added that with two or three of the par fours probably being drivable, that may also assist Europe – however warned that setting-up the course may solely assist a lot with the groups evenly matched.
“I feel it is a enjoyable golf course when it comes to there’s doubtlessly two or three driveable par fours,” he added. “Statistically, driving is an efficient a part of our video games so to have these in there may give us a slight benefit.
“However there’s solely a lot you are able to do. The gamers are very evenly matched in the case of statistics.
“You are simply looking for little potential variations that you could capitalise on however the usual of play could be very shut as of late. It is onerous to achieve an enormous benefit.”
Simply precisely who might be in these groups remains to be a thriller. We all know that LIV Golf gamers is not going to be allowed to play for Europe, however technically the likes of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau stay eligible for Group USA.
Johnson and Keopka have already stated they’d prefer to play within the Ryder Cup and Zach Johnson has beforehand revealed that LIV gamers had been nonetheless eligible for Group USA, whether or not he’d choose them or not stays to be seen.
