Takeaways from Luke Donald's Ryder Cup Picks

Following Monday’s unveiling of Team Europe’s captain’s picks, the stage is set for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Captain Luke Donald has officially cast his votes, selecting Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg, and Matt Fitzpatrick to don the European colors on Long Island later this month. No big surprises on the picks.

With the 12 best European golfers now selected – picks met with almost no backlash – here are a couple of takeaways on the state of Team Europe and European professional golf more broadly, based on the roster’s composition.

1. The Benefit of Continuity

It sure seems to feel like every decision Team Europe makes receives a positive rating in the court of public opinion, while every Team USA decision falls under intense scrutiny. Team Europe plays chess while Zach Johnson tries to figure out the rules of checkers, so to speak. Each side’s reputation is well-earned and informed by at least a decade of observable disparities in the quality of decision-making.

Has Team Europe earned so much benefit of the doubt that it is now running a boys’ club of its own, handpicking from a consistent pool of players and committing the same crime for which Team USA gets lambasted? Is continuity just a euphemism for boys’ club? After all, this year’s team features 11 of the same 12 players from the 2023 squad, with Rasmus Hojgaard the lone exception, swapping in for his twin brother, Nicolai (insert your favorite terrible joke about 12 familiar faces here).

I regret to inform those eager to poke holes in Team Europe’s ostensibly infallible process that this is no boys’ club. The reality is that the lack of churn isn’t a byproduct of a proclivity towards buddy ball. The pack of unfamiliar faces didn’t make strong enough cases to replace the incumbents. Who, exactly, are you taking someone like Harry Hall, Matt Wallace, or Marco Penge over?

Those who consume American football content are well-acquainted with the impact of personnel changes. All changes to a team, either to those wearing a helmet or a headset, are placed under a microscope, not strictly due to the explicit talent turnover but because of the potential frictions any time a personnel change occurs. Risk often accompanies change.

The great fortune for Team Europe is that this year’s team will reap the benefits of continuity and, by definition, experience without compromising on merit. Who knows how significant an advantage continuity truly yields, but it’s hard to argue that the team’s familiarity and comfort with the playbook won’t provide some level of benefit for the European side, given that this is also the most deserving group of players.

2. The Status of the DP World Tour

There are two classes of professional golfers: PGA Tour players and aspiring PGA Tour players. Where LIV Golf ultimately stacks up in that landscape remains to be determined. However, it is impossible to dispute the DP World Tour’s current status as a feeder tour to the higher levels.

Ten PGA Tour cards are distributed annually to the top-performing DPWT players, which effectively grants status for non-signature events. Solid performance in non-signature events qualifies players for signature events. The steps are clear and defined.

That doesn’t mean the DPWT is devoid of high-level talent, but it does mean that the quality of play is substantially lower than on the PGA Tour. Every single member of the European team played a full schedule on either the PGA Tour or LIV this year. Either Luke Donald is biased and overlooks the talent of a player like Marco Penge, who has three straight top 10s and two wins since April on the DPWT. Or, Donald appropriately recognizes that the DPWT has been stripped of much of its talent and that the best golfers prove their mettle on bigger stages. I’d argue for the latter.

The dominance of the PGA Tour is not a new phenomenon, but as pathways to the PGA Tour have been constructed and reformed over the last decade and since the PGA Tour has restructured its schedule into two tiers of tournaments, distinct lines of demarcation leave little doubt as to the caliber of today’s professional golfers.

Thriston Lawrence, one of the 10 to earn PGA Tour status entering 2025 by way of DPWT performance in 2024, cracked the top 40 in just two PGA Tour-sanctioned starts – a T-8 at the Rocket Classic and a T-12 at the U.S. Open – out of 18 appearances this year. In five DP World Tour starts, he finished with two top fives, including a win at last week’s Omega European Masters. The differences in field strengths between the two tours are significant.

Relatedly, the following post from Pablo Larrazabal, a proud card-carrying member of the DPWT, attracted some attention on social media over the last couple of days.  

Leaving aside the curious citation of Matt Wallace, who played a full PGA Tour schedule this year, the post is an amusing window into the mindset of a DPWT player who understandably feels that his tour has been left behind. What one considers a bias against DPWT players, another – namely Luke Donald – considers a proper interpretation of field strengths.

Luke Donald, Edoardo Molinari, and the rest of Team Europe have no ulterior motive to undermine the DPWT or hasten the migration of talent from the DPWT to the PGA Tour. Nor, on the flip side, is it their priority or responsibility to restore the prestige of the once-proud European Tour by rewarding its finest talents with Ryder Cup roster spots. Their sole goal is to win the Ryder Cup.

Still, even if the dominance of the PGA Tour is nothing new, the makeup of this year’s European Ryder Cup team serves as a sobering reminder of how far the DP World Tour’s stature has fallen and where it currently stands in the professional golf landscape.