Preparations for the 2025 Ryder Cup have already begun, but the American team still does not have a captain.
Rumors have been building recently that Tiger Woods will be leading Team USA at Bethpage Black, where he won the 2002 U.S. Open, but the PGA has yet to make an official announcement.
It will likely be held after next week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla, where Woods will compete.
Meanwhile, Luke Donald, who led the club to European glory under Marco Simone in 2023, is set to return as captain in 2025.
The British player received overwhelming praise from Europeans for his leadership and team-building skills. He also executed a great strategy of hitting the right buttons on pairings while setting up the golf course to suit his own team. Therefore, DP World Tour once again selected Donald as the leader of the team.
He’s not taking his job lightly again, even though competition at Bethpage Black won’t begin for 16 months yet.
So Donald visited the Long Island course on Monday and shared the news on his Instagram.
Mondays are notoriously closed to the public for course maintenance, but Donald was able to get an exclusive view of the Black Course when no one else was there.
The sign that greets golfers at the first tee doesn’t lie. The layout is difficult, with each hole having intricate bunkers and doglegs that create difficult angles. Each fairway has a thick, steep and healthy rough line, making the tee shot difficult if you can’t find the short grass. The greens are relatively calm, but if you miss your approach in the wrong spot, you could end up with a bogey or worse.
Fortunately for Donald, he has previously competed in major championships on black courses. He tied for 18th in his first U.S. Open appearance in 2002, but missed the cut at Bethpage in 2009.
He last played the Black Course in 2016, when he tied for 53rd place against Barclays in what was then the first round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The British player, who shot a 2-under 69 on the first day, completed rounds of 71, 72 and 75 to take the win at 4 over.
Still, while the Americans still lacked a leader, Donald and the Europeans had a head start in preparation.
This should be a wake-up call for Team USA to move forward with its own process, as its performance against European opponents over the past 30 years has been good and bad. Sure, the U.S. has won the last two Ryder Cups on home soil, but the last thing Team USA wants to experience is a repeat of the 2012 Medina miracle. The European team made a huge comeback from a 10-6 deficit. He competed in singles on Sunday and stole the cup on the final hole.
This was the last time the team won a Ryder Cup in a road race.
Sadly, Donald and the Europeans already have a head start on achieving it in 2025.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
