Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald still in dark over Europe’s LIV players

The messy backdrop to the Ryder Cup scene has been further demonstrated by the inability of Luke Donald, the newly appointed European captain, to clarify whether LIV rebels will be allowed to feature in Rome next September. The Englishman, 44, was installed by Ryder Cup Europe after Henrik Stenson was effectively sacked from the role for being coaxed by the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV tour.

Stenson’s victory at Bedminster on Sunday raised the prospect that he could feature again for Europe against the United States as a player. Sergio García has said he will hold off from resigning from the DP World, formerly European, Tour until the Ryder Cup situation is clarified. Key to that is a legal battle over whether LIV golfers can retain European status; until that is resolved, Donald finds himself in an invidious position.

The former world No 1’s unveiling was duly dominated by LIV themes. “Obviously part of being a captain is to create a strong 12-man unified team and I’ll be working on that over the next 14 months,” Donald said.

“I’m not here really to talk about LIV and whether they will be eligible or not. That’s to be seen and kind of a hypothetical question. But certainly over the next few months, hopefully we’ll have some clarity on that situation and we can start making some decisions about that when it becomes more clear.”

Pressed on whether he sought guidance on whom he may or may not be able to pick, Donald said: “There’s a legal situation going on. I don’t think that situation’s going to get resolved any time soon. So until that does, I can’t really comment on it because there’s no real answer.

“Given the opportunity to be a Ryder Cup captain is one of the greatest honours I can have in my golfing career. I’m