Rory McIlroy believes Luke Donald 'continuity' will benefit Europe's Ryder Cup bid
Rory McIlroy believes the “continuity” of having Luke Donald serving as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain once again in New York next month will be a major boost to their chances of sealing success against the United States.
Donald overseen a 16.5-11.5 victory at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome two years ago with McIlroy collecting four points – the most of any player in Team Europe.
The Northern Irishman will once again be his side’s leading light at Bethpage Black as he looks to seal an eighth Ryder Cup crown and round out a memorable year in which he became only the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam.
McIlroy is warming up for the sport’s biggest team competition at the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake, where he endured a tough third round on Saturday.
The 36-year-old ended with a double-bogey on the par-three 15th before further bogeys at 17 and 18, resulting in a 71 which had him sitting 10 shots adrift of tied-leaders Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood.
McIlroy and Fleetwood are already guaranteed their spots at the Ryder Cup alongside team-mates Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton with the final automatic spot to be decided this weekend.
"Just continuity,” said McIlroy when asked about the benefits of Donald remaining as captain. “Most of us know what his communication style is.
"Most of us know what he's looking for in us.
“Luke and I live on the same street in Florida; we see each other all the time, so we talk about it a lot. I know what he wants from me, and I try to do that as best as I can.
“But I think just that continuity piece, and we all know what we're going to get whenever we turn up at Bethpage, which I think is reassuring for a lot of the players.
"Luke is over in Europe right now, and he's at the Belfry and he's with a few of the guys there that maybe have a chance to get those last couple of spots on the team. I'd say he's focused more on that side of things right now.
“There's a lot of us here that he doesn't really need to focus on or speak to right now, myself, Rosey, Bob, Tommy, Viktor (Hovland), the guys that are pretty much on the team.
“But the dialogue has been good. It's nice that it looks like the team is going to be pretty much the same. We have this group chat from Rome that's still going two years on.
“But it's been good. Everyone is in good spirits, and obviously everyone is excited for what's to come in a few weeks at Bethpage.”
McIlroy won his first Ryder Cup in 2010 and collected further victories in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
A lot has changed over those 15 years with McIlroy taking on a more senior position given his standing in the sport.
"I played on Ryder Cup teams with all those guys that were sort of the core of that European team for a decade or more, and that's who I started with, and now we've sort of created our own core group, and it's the next generation, and that's a cool thing,” he added. “There's a few guys there that I probably don't have their number anymore or they don't have mine.
"Yeah, everyone on this team, absolutely. Everyone on this team has my number. But some of the previous teams I've changed my number and not given it out to everyone.”