‘There’s no favouritism’: Luke Donald says every player will ‘earn their way’ to Ryder Cup

A man who, as captain, can seemingly do no wrong. Luke Donald did the merry-go-round of media duties in the grand ballroom of Adare Manor – the magnificent Murano crystal chandeliers overhead casting him in a glowing light wherever he went – as part of the Ryder Cup’s year-to-go countdown, impressively delivering the kind of calm, authoritative messaging that has formed part of his successful captaincies in Rome in 2023 and Bethpage in 2025.

Next year’s Ryder Cup, in the splendid setting of Adare Manor alongside the river Maigue, will be special for the fact it is the centenary edition – 100 years since the first match in Massachusetts in 1927 – but also for Donald’s attempt to become the first European captain to win three straight matches.