Furyk, Donald assess Ryder Cup task ahead
By John Hopkins • May 13, 2026
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA | They are two men from different continents united by an identical aim – to win the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, Ireland, in September 2027. Jim Furyk is the tall one, suited and booted in smart casual clothes and a blue-and-white striped shirt, a handkerchief in his breast pocket, loafers on his feet, who has captained one U.S. Ryder Cup team and lost. Luke Donald is the quietly spoken other, the Englishman and former world No. 1 who wears the clothes of a competitor in the 108th PGA Championship, who has captained the past two Europe Ryder Cup teams and won both matches.
On the eve of the PGA, Furyk and Donald were facing up to pressures of different sorts that could be described as the accompaniment to their jobs. Furyk’s is to captain a victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team away from home for the first time since 1993. Success for Furyk would bring satisfaction and respect to the golfers of his country. The U.S. do not often have such losing records. It’s not in their nature. As a nation they are very success-orientated.
The pressure Donald faces is not to be Europe's first losing captain of a home Ryder Cup for 33 years and to become the first European leader to win three Ryder Cups in succession, two home and one away. Such success for Donald would make him unquestionably Europe’s winningest captain, and who knows what might happen then? He might be knighted. Perhaps the words “arise Sir Luke” are in Donald’s future after a member of the royal family, perhaps in Buckingham Palace, holding a jewelled sword secure in its scabbard, has tapped him lightly on each shoulder.
For now, he has few concerns.
He leads a well-run product, one on which as much as $20 million is spent for each match, one in which the canon of Ryder Cup knowledge is passed like a baton from one contest to the next, one in which the art of statistical analysis is handled brilliantly by vice captain Edoardo Molinari. Even the defection to LIV Golf of certain players and their eligibility to compete in the Ryder Cup, a subject of some discussion on the players’ home tour, is suppressed on the altar of success in the Ryder Cup.
“There’s always going to be people that have different opinions and different viewpoints but when it comes to the Ryder Cup in the team room I think they’re all pretty aligned,” Donald said. “Obviously it’s my job to make sure everyone is aligned. I like to use the phrase ‘even brothers fight sometimes.’ But deep down they love each other and the mission is pretty clear when we play a Ryder Cup and that’s to win.”