THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the 108th PGA Championship. We're pleased to spend some time with European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.
Luke, welcome to Aronimink and your 18th PGA Championship. How was your practice round yesterday, and what did you think of the golf course?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's nice to be back playing a little competitive golf. It's been a while. First real look at Aronimink. I got here Monday, played a late nine holes and played 18 yesterday. Enjoyed the golf course, very old classic golf course. Very much a second-shot course, I feel like, with the Donald Ross greens. Reasonably generous off the tee.
So it's important to be on the fairway, but it's all about the second shots into these greens and see what the PGA of America does with the pin locations. I think, again, very enjoyable, old, classic golf course.
Q. Secondly, how have the first few months of your third tenure as captain been?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, all very good. Got in a little trip to Adare last month. Had a good look at the golf course, had a good look at the hotel, and progress has started.
Yeah, it's early days, but we're already ticking a few boxes and enjoying the journey again.
Q. In terms of the recent news around Jon Rahm, I was just wondering what your reaction would be to that? I would imagine not displeased, but also were you involved in that process at all?
LUKE DONALD: I'm not involved in the policy of the DP World Tour and the discussions between the parties. I did talk to Jon. I just wanted to get his thoughts on where he was. Obviously, I'm always in communication with the DP World Tour.
It's not my job to tell Jon what to do, but obviously very delighted that a resolution has happened and that he's available as someone that can be a part of the Ryder Cup team.
Having as many players available to pick from, especially someone like Jon who's obviously proved how valuable he can be in a Ryder Cup. He's played four and obviously two under my captaincy and done extremely well. So to have him available for selection is pretty cool.
Q. On that note, how do you prepare for what could be just a different landscape in golf depending on what happens? There's a lot of uncertainty right now.
LUKE DONALD: I think that's the word, isn't it, uncertainty. We don't really know what's going to happen with LIV.
Obviously you have to think about that in terms of qualification criteria. We don't have to announce that till sort of latish summer, mid to late summer.
Again, the next few months, we'll just wait and see. I don't try and make decisions on things that are unknown. So I'm going to try and make decisions on things that I know will happen and what we can control.
I'm not worried about it too much right now. I have a lot of faith in Edoardo in terms of getting the right qualification criteria, making sure that we get the strongest six. Then you can implement and pick the next six to complement those players.
Q. As an American and a European myself, I have a hard time sometimes explaining to the Americans what unites the European team. It's not that people have flags -- European Union flags outside their houses. It's not like they know the European Union anthem. Is it feeling like a family around the European Tour? Is it a sense there's a common rival? What is it?
LUKE DONALD: The Ryder Cup has a deep history. I think, certainly, if I look at myself as a junior player going up and wanting to be a professional golfer, the Ryder Cup was something that ignited something in me when I was a kid. I watched it. I think as golf fans we're always drawn to it because it's so different from everything else we have in the game in terms of match play, in terms of that rivalry.
So as a kid, I wanted to be in Ryder Cups. I wanted to be like Seve. I wanted to be like Nick Faldo. I wanted to be like Bernhard Langer. Playing in these teams because you could see the passion and how much it meant to these guys.
Again, my job as captain is to obviously talk about that, but I think a lot of the players feel the very same way. They very much were inspired as kids to want to play in Ryder Cups. There's just a special meaning behind it. I think that's always the message I give to these players, and I think that can be quite unifying.
Q. Is it a challenge that a lot of your players, the European team players, are also kind of American, no? They have children born here, and they have connections in the United States, not beyond the golf, like family connections. Do you find it challenging to inspire them?
LUKE DONALD: Again, personally speaking, I can't speak for them, but I'm one of those, too. I grew up in England. When I was 19, I came to the college over here in Chicago, and I've lived here ever since. Very grateful for the opportunities I've been given to play the PGA TOUR, to live in the U.S. Married an American; she has Greek parents, so she has some loyalty to Europe.
I think you never forget where you grow up and what you represent. Every single player is the same way, I would imagine.
Q. Luke, you're clearly a firmly organized fellow and very good at details and things. I'm just wondering how you cope with all the issues of the Ryder Cup? I mean, you must have had hundreds of questions before Bethpage, before you took the job on and since you agreed to do it. I'm wondering if you and Diane have an agreement that over dinner you'll talk about wine, painting, and the family and anything other than the Ryder Cup?
LUKE DONALD: I think the dynamic between Diane and I is interesting. I don't get too involved -- especially when it comes closer to the Ryder Cup.
Right now we're certainly having some discussions together at dinner whenever the time is right about the team spaces. Certainly I don't talk to her about the golf course. She doesn't really talk to me about ladies clothes.
I just have complete trust in what she does, and she has complete trust in what I do. There are some overlaps. Like right now we're talking about team spaces. There's a distinct difference between part of the hotel to the other. One's a ballroom. One's sort of part of the old hotel, and which might be better for our team. Those are things we would discuss together.
But there's definitely stuff that I have complete faith in what she does, and she has complete faith in what I do. So we don't need to go into too much detail then.
Q. You don't have a feeling, look, we have to stop talking about this. There are other things going on.
LUKE DONALD: I mean, we talk about other stuff as well. If something is needed discussed with the Ryder Cup that involves both of us, then we talk about it. If not, we're just dealing with everyday life.
Q. Just one more on Jon. He obviously said some pretty strong things about the Tour, even accusing them of extortion with regard to sanctions. Do you think he has any bridges he needs to build with anybody at the Tour or even potential players next year?
LUKE DONALD: I think time is certainly on our side. It's 18 months until the Ryder Cup. I was glad a resolution had come to -- an agreement had come to fruition sooner rather than later. I think the longer you leave that, the more onus is on me to potentially help with some of those bridges.
Last two Ryder Cups, I've had to deal with the -- kind of the world of golf. It's been very different to what we've ever seen in the past. I think there's always going to be people that have different opinions and different viewpoints. But when it comes to the Ryder Cup in the team room, I think they're all pretty aligned.
It's obviously my job to make sure everyone is aligned. I like to use the phrase even brothers fight sometimes. But deep down, they love each other, and the mission is pretty clear when we play a Ryder Cup, and that's to win. They understand that putting those feelings, those egos of different personalities, personal things to one side is important if you're going to be successful.
I don't have any real qualms or issues that the team room won't be unified.
Q. Can you give a quick assessment of the course at Adare Manor and what kind of player it may or may not shoot.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's a beautiful Tom Fazio. Looks really pretty golf course, parkland. A decent amount of space there. It's not necessarily narrow. They did a regrassing this last summer for the option to potentially grow rough if we want to and narrow some of the fairways.
It's just a beautiful parkland course in the southwest of Ireland, five-star manor house that has a lot of history. I think it will be a tremendous venue for a Ryder Cup. It's not a typical Irish links course by any means, but it's certainly a very good golf course.
Q. You mentioned Edoardo earlier. Can you talk about how his role has evolved with you and how much more responsibility, if he does have more responsibility, as your tenure has gone on into different captaincies?
LUKE DONALD: I don't think his role has evolved other than he's evolving with the -- how technology is changing since 2023. I think he's just getting sharper at what he's doing in terms of how he sees data, how he can use data.
Again, talking with John about me and my wife, I have complete faith in Edoardo. I'm not constantly checking in on him, but we're definitely talking a lot about what we could do differently from Ryder Cup to Ryder Cup, how we're going to give ourselves a slight edge. Some of that is through statistics. Some of that is through the numbers, through the golf course.
I don't think what he does has really changed, but again, he's sharpening his tools and going with the times, I would say.
Q. Obviously there were two different ballot applications. One was the Isle of Ireland, which sold out in jig time, and the other is coming up, which is the global one, which I believe has over 400,000 applications already. How influential or desirable was it for you to ensure it was a strong Irish support base for the Ryder Cup?
LUKE DONALD: Well, it's one of the biggest advantages of a home team is to have a great supportive crowd behind you. You obviously want to appease and welcome as many locals as possible.
I wasn't directly involved with the ticket, the policies, and how they went about that, but I think Ryder Cup Europe have been doing this enough time to understand that you want to include the locals as much as possible, and they've certainly done that with those initiative that's you've talked about.
Q. Around the time of November, you were at best 50/50, at least publicly, whether you wanted to take this job again. What was the determining factor? Are there some conversations you had that stood out that helped you decided you wanted to go another time?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I think that Sunday night -- I've said it before maybe a few times. I'm not sure if I've said it publicly.
But Sunday night of New York, I thought that was my time as captain. I'm very fortunate to be able to do it twice and to be a winning captain home and away. I think you always dream of something like that happening, and it happened. I felt very good about that.
But as the months went on -- I live in South Florida. I live very close to Rory. I live very close to Shane, Matt Fitzpatrick. I saw a few guys in Dubai in January as well. They were definitely very positive about me trying to go again.
So I started to think about it because, if your players really want you to do it, then I would at least consider that.
Then I really wanted to talk to my family. It's a little bit of a burden on a family. My oldest daughter is 16. In two years' time, she'll be going to college. I knew, if I took this job on, it would be more time away than if I didn't. So that was a consideration.
It's been a hugely positive experience for my family. The winning helps. But they've enjoyed some of the moments, especially the weeks of the Ryder Cup. It's been great for my family. So they were very much behind it.
I think the last factor for me was just having a Ryder Cup where it was, in Ireland, a home Ryder Cup. I've played a lot of golf in Ireland over the years, and the welcome you always get from these people is pretty incredible.
I think we could create a great environment for the Ryder Cup and one that it truly deserves. I think it will be a nice way to -- a nice way to end a Ryder Cup, being in Ireland with those kind of great golf fans.
Q. Do you think if LIV hadn't happened, would you have gotten even one chance to be captain?
LUKE DONALD: It's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. I know there was a lot of people probably in line in front of me that went to LIV and obviously gave up that opportunity.
But I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason, and when you have those opportunities, to take them as much as you can.
To obviously have one opportunity to do it in Italy was incredible. Now I'm sitting here having three opportunities, yeah, I never would have dreamed that.
Q. Some of the boys that went to LIV, can you ever see a scenario where they have a chance to be captain someday?
LUKE DONALD: Right now, obviously the simple answer is no just because it's in the policy that you left and that was stipulated.
Yeah, again, there's uncertainty to what's going to happen with LIV in the future. I'm sure policies do change, but that will be up to really the Tour.
Q. Secondly, on your decision to return, did Rosie's sustained high-level performance at his age have any bearing on your decision?
LUKE DONALD: Maybe very small. I do love and care about the Ryder Cup, but it's not my responsibility to choose -- understand who the next captain would be.
I do think to be a captain you probably want to be immersed as a vice captain at least once to kind of understand the ins and outs a little bit of what happens that week and leading up to it.
Even with Justin playing well at the beginning of this year, I do think -- I would always recommend someone like him to be a vice captain at least once before being a captain.
Again, that probably answers that. It wasn't a real big factor in my decision.
Q. To what extent has Geoff Ogilvy reached out to you for advice or the secret sauce to beating the Americans? And how generous have you been?
LUKE DONALD: I've talked to Geoff a couple times just under the tree at Augusta. That's really the extent of our conversation.
I have had more conversations with Camilo Villegas, who's a good friend of mine, who is one of his assistants.
Yeah, I'm willing to give them an insight into what we do. I don't think it's that secret, but yeah, I've had a few conversations with Camilo.
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