Luke Donald has been branded ‘Captain Calm’ by Europe’s last victorious Ryder Cup captain.
And Thomas Bjorn, who led the continent to victory in Paris back in 2018 and is one of Donald’s deputy’s in Rome this week, insisted there had been no disruption from him filling Henrik Stenson’s shoes after he was axed for joining LIV Golf.
The Dane predicted the calming influence of Donald, who played in four Ryder Cups, would be integral to home success.
“He’s calm, that’s the one thing that springs to mind straight away,” said Bjorn. “He’ll have a very calming influence on the players and I think that’ll be great for the rookies.
“He has the ability to talk people into the right frame of mind. I wouldn’t say he’s Bernhard Langer quite but I think he’ll be down that mould. He’s already been a very, very good captain, and I think he’s the perfect fit for this group of players.”
As a player, Donald boasts 10.5 points from a possible 15 matches, suffering defeat on just four occasions under a variety of Ryder Cup captains.
Bjorn said: “He was an excellent player individually but also in the Ryder Cup – a very successful foursomes player which is the hardest format. That tells you a lot about the man – he’s got such high standards.”
Bjorn was originally appointed as one of two vice-captains to Stenson and remained in his post when Stenson had the captaincy removed after switching to LIV to be replaced by Donald.
Bjorn insisted Europe would not be affected by the change of leadership in their bid to rebuild following a record defeat at Whistling Straits two years ago.
“Luke’s had 14 months to form his own ideas,” he said, “so that’s really in the past. And it’s not something I think Luke has really spent much time thinking about.
“He’s embraced the role and the situation he finds himself in. He’s had some bumps along the way with certain things in the golfing world but he’s dealt with it well. We keep focusing on what we can focuse on.
“We focus on what we have, the players eligible, the players committed to the cause of what we’re trying to do to win the Ryder Cup back.”
