European Ryder Cup fans have it good at the moment.
Two consecutive victories over the United States, one at home and one away, have cemented Luke Donald’s place among Europe’s greatest captains – possibly the greatest.
He has masterminded two outstanding performances with almost the same group of players, establishing a level of togetherness that the Americans have always struggled to match.
And there is every reason to believe that Europe will make it three wins in a row at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027.
Donald has never lost a Ryder Cup, either as a player or captain. He will be desperate to preserve that record, particularly on home soil, and he knows exactly which players he can trust to deliver for a third time on the spin.
But while we should relish this extraordinary period of European success, there might be an uncomfortable reality waiting around the corner.
It is difficult to imagine Donald making wholesale changes to his team for next year. In 2023 and 2025, he selected effectively the same 12 players. The only difference was Rasmus Hojgaard replacing his twin brother Nicolai. It is an extraordinary level of continuity in a competition where faces often change considerably from one edition to the next.
But why would Donald change a winning formula?
Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton have become familiar figures in European Ryder Cup teams, as have Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland and Bob MacIntyre. They understand what representing Europe means, and it meant to previous stars of the blue and gold.
Donald evidently knows how to get the best out of them. The partnerships almost pick themselves at this stage. Players know who they enjoy playing alongside, which combinations work, and what their roles are within the team, to the point where fanalysts like yours truly could have an accurate stab at the lineup on the first morning.
Of course, there will be opportunities for emerging players to force their way into Donald’s thinking. Eugenio Chacarra is one example of someone who could make himself impossible to ignore. The Spaniard is on track to win the Race to Dubai after winning the DP World India Championship.
And if established players suffer significant declines in form, Donald might have some difficult decisions to make with his six captain’s picks. But, generally, you can expect the European team in Ireland to look similar to what won in Rome and on Long Island last year.
With McIlroy playing in front of an Irish crowd, and Shane Lowry alongside him, Europe should be formidable opponents. The Americans will have an enormous task on their hands.
But what makes Europe so strong in 2027 could become their weakness in 2029.
Nothing lasts forever. Is the European Ryder Cup team future-proofed?
When a team in sport tastes success, it usually comes from developing a foundation of reliable players and a steady coach or captain. But it all comes to an end one day, then transition is required.
Whether players have reached their sell-by date or new faces emerge, it happens in many sports. Take Liverpool’s most outstanding side under coach Jurgen Klopp.
For a sustained period, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk and Jordan Henderson, among others, formed the backbone of a team that won the Premier League and Champions League.
They played together regularly, understood each other and knew how to win. But that team couldn’t last forever and now, Liverpool must rebuild with different personnel as the golden generation has nearly all moved on.
There’s an uncanny resemblance to Team Europe at play, and they will eventually face the same challenge. Justin Rose will be 49 when the 2029 Ryder Cup comes around. McIlroy will be 40, and Lowry will be 42.
That doesn’t mean they won’t be involved. Rose has already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to remain competitive at the highest level, and McIlroy could conceivably play in several more Ryder Cups.
But it would be unrealistic to expect every member of this current European team to remain at the top of their game indefinitely for further Ryder Cups to come. And Donald won’t necessarily be there to guide them through the transition.
Assuming 2027 is his final Ryder Cup as captain, Europe could arrive at the 2029 contest in America with a new leader, several new players and a significantly different team dynamic.
Rose might be an obvious candidate for the captaincy, but whoever takes charge could inherit a very different situation from the one Donald has enjoyed. That is where the concern begins.
Could Europe face another mauling like at Whistling Straits when in transition?
Ideally, you might think successful Ryder Cup teams should introduce two or three new players each time the event rolls around.
Not necessarily because the existing players aren’t good enough, but because it allows the next generation to gain experience alongside established performers.
That way, when the veterans eventually depart, their replacements have already experienced the Ryder Cup. The alternative is to keep selecting the same trusted players until several of them reach the end of their Ryder Cup careers at roughly the same time.
Suddenly, what was a stable, experienced team becomes one undergoing a rebuild. But here is the dilemma. The Ryder Cup isn’t a development programme and captains are judged on whether they win, not blooding youngsters.
Why would Donald leave out a trusted player in 2027 to prepare someone else for 2029? He wouldn’t, nor should we expect him to.
A home defeat in Ireland would be a desperately disappointing conclusion to his captaincy, particularly given his unbeaten record. Donald will understandably prioritise the players he believes give Europe the best chance of winning. But that approach could leave his successor with some difficult decisions.
It is a fascinating contradiction where the more Europe rely on their established stars to keep winning now, the harder the eventual transition could become.
We have already seen what can happen when Europe finds itself between generations. At Whistling Straits in 2021, Europe suffered a humiliating 19-9 defeat against the United States.
There were mitigating circumstances, of course. The Americans possessed an extraordinarily talented team, arguably one of the strongest ever assembled, comparable to the golden age of 1981 at Walton Heath.
But Europe were a team in transition.
Several of the players who had defined European Ryder Cup success for so long – Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey – were approaching the end of their careers, while the next generation had yet to establish itself.
It would be unfair to suggest that the defeat was entirely down to changing personnel. The Americans were simply outstanding. Nevertheless, Whistling Straits demonstrated how vulnerable Europe can become when their established formula stops working.
Two years later, Donald’s team restored European dominance in Rome, with a rejuvenated core and a group of players who have become almost inseparable.
But could Europe face another Whistling Straits moment sooner than we think?
A new captain, an away match, a handful of inexperienced players and an American team desperate to end Europe’s recent success. The circumstances could be challenging.
Can Europe continue to produce stars that lift themselves to new levels at the Ryder Cup?
We have become accustomed to Europeans producing extraordinary performances against the US, performances some of them weren’t capable of transferring into major glory.
Westwood, Poulter, Donald, Casey, and Colin Montgomerie are among the players who consistently excelled in the competition. Exceptional individual golfers who seemed to find another level when representing Europe. Montgomerie, famously, never lost a Ryder Cup singles match.
Garcia, albeit a Masters champion, became the competition’s record points scorer, while Westwood enjoyed a remarkable Ryder Cup career spanning 11 appearances. Donald himself was an outstanding team player, and an established World No.1 at one time.
We almost take this for granted now. We assume that when the next generation of talented European golfers emerges, they will automatically become brilliant Ryder Cup players too.
Can we expect that to always be the case?
There is no guarantee the next European stars will reproduce the Ryder Cup performances of Garcia, Westwood, Montgomerie and their contemporaries.
Look at Jim Furyk, the current US captain. An outstanding American golfer, a major champion and a hugely consistent performer throughout his career, yet his Ryder Cup record of 10 wins, 20 losses and four halves was remarkably poor relative to his individual achievements.
It demonstrates that being a world-class golfer and being a world-class Ryder Cup player are not the same thing. Europe have been fortunate to produce generations of players who seem particularly suited to the demands of this competition.
Perhaps that is down to European team culture. Perhaps it is something about the personalities involved. Or perhaps we have simply enjoyed an extraordinary run of players whose games and temperaments happened to thrive in the Ryder Cup.
Whatever the explanation, we cannot assume it will continue indefinitely.
The next generation might produce major champions, tournament winners and some of the best individual golfers in the world.
But will they become the next Garcia, Westwood or Montgomerie when the Ryder Cup comes around?
Nobody knows. And that uncertainty should concern European fans.
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