![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/donald_molinari.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cThey were already in my ear,\u201d Donald said. \u201cI was trying to bat them away and enjoy the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n
Back then, Donald was not convinced about going again. Edoardo Molinari, his indispensable assistant of the past two victories, says he \u201chad a few conversations\u201d following the 15-13 win on Long Island. \u201cBut,\u201d the Italian adds, \u201cit seemed to me like he wasn\u2019t willing to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molinari, who has revolutionized Europe\u2019s approach to these matches with his data-driven approach to strategy and pairings, could understand Donald\u2019s hesitancy over retaining a role in which he had dedicated the previous three years of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m guessing a bit, but after Bethpage there\u2019s nothing else you can do,\u201d Molinari tells TG. \u201cYou won one at home \u2013 great, everyone wins at home most of the time \u2013 but to be able to win one not only away, but in Bethpage,\u00a0where basically everyone gave us no chance, that\u2019s always going to be impossible to beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think\u00a0he was probably starting to miss it a little bit.\u00a0Obviously, they offered him the captaincy again. First of all, who\u2019s the someone else?\u00a0We didn\u2019t really have a clear candidate. He almost feels like\u00a0the European team is a family for him.\u00a0I don\u2019t think he wanted to leave\u00a0that kind of family\u00a0behind. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be amazing if he could win three times in a row,\u00a0but even if we didn\u2019t win in Ireland, he still will remember\u00a0as the best Ryder Cup captain we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Donald held further talks with Ryder Cup Europe\u2019s chief exectutive Guy Kinnings in Dubai in January and by this stage had come round to the idea of going for the historic \u2018threepeat\u2019. <\/p>\n
But there was one condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was funny,\u201d Molinari smiles, \u201cbecause he texted me a couple of weeks before it was officially announced saying, \u2018I\u2019m warming up to the idea. I might be able to do it.\u2019 But he said, \u2018I\u2019m only going to do it if you are willing to help\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s a no-brainer to me.\u00a0First of all, I think you should do it anyway.\u00a0Secondly, if you ask me to do it,\u00a0I\u2019ll walk to Ireland in order to be able to do it.\u2019 Any time you can be involved in the Ryder Cup,\u00a0in any role, any shape or form,\u00a0it\u2019s one of the best weeks of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey were already in my ear,\u201d Donald said. \u201cI was trying to bat them away and enjoy the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-958709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116571534071701117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}