Englishman Luke Donald will replace the sacked Henrik Stenson as captain of the European team in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Stenson was canned two weeks ago after announcing he would join LIV Golf, the rival tour backed by Saudi Arabian royalty and clouded in controversy for that country’s poor record of human rights abuses and other atrocities. Stenson begins play on that tour today at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey. The longtime independent contractor has expressed disappointment in losing the honorary Ryder Cup job after breaking his captaincy contract that forbid him from playing on a rival tour by signing a lucrative contract with LIV Golf.
Donald – a four-time Ryder Cup player (2004, ’06, ’10, ’12), five-time PGA Tour winner and six-time DP World Tour winner who played college golf at Northwestern – was long rumored as a potential captain at some future Ryder Cup. The former World No. 1 served as a vice captain in the past two Ryder Cups and is playing this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour in Detroit.
According to the report, Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari will keep their gigs as vice captains in Rome.
While there was much speculation on who might replace the canned Stenson as captain, as of yet it doesn’t appear the top Euro players themselves are in any rush to jump to LIV Golf. Potential team members such as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick, among others, have not joined LIV, with several having pledged a commitment to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Most of the former European Ryder Cuppers who have jumped to LIV, such as Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, are seen by many as being well past their primes and unlikely candidates to have competed in Rome. Of those who have left to compete for LIV’s Greg Norman, only the aging Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey were considered potential contenders to compete in Rome.
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