Stenson’s announcement now raises the question: who’s next to step into the captaincy for the Euros? Ryder Cup stalwarts and LIV golfers Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia are all most likely out of the question due to their status on the upstart circuit that’s long been criticized as a way for the Saudi government to sportswash its human rights record.
European legends like Bernhard Langer and Nick Faldo have most likely aged out of the role, so who does that leave? Here are some options for the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy.
Get ready for three more players to join the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Greg Norman-led, Saudi Arabia-funded upstart circuit announced the field for its upcoming third event at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 29-31, but three spots were left to be filled “in the coming days.” Teams have yet to be finalized, as well.
Paul Casey, a former UNICEF ambassador who once spoke out against competing in Saudi Arabia, will make his debut in the 54-hole, no cut team and player competition that boasts $25 million in prize money due to its backing from the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom. Speculation has run rampant on who will be the next to make the move to LIV after British Open champion Cameron Smith’s non-denial when asked if he was joining the upstart series.
“I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that,” said Smith. “I think that’s pretty not that good. I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”
Others who have been linked to LIV include fellow Aussies Adam Scott and Marc Leishman, Hideki Matsuyama, Bubba Watson and European Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson.
Meet the confirmed field competing at LIV Golf Bedminster:
One week after an historic $10 million purse at the U.S. Women’s Open, Linn Grant made another leap for the game.
One week after the women played for an historic $10 million purse at the U.S. Women’s Open, Linn Grant made another leap for the game by becoming the first woman to win on the DP World Tour.
Grant, 22, crushed the field of 78 men and women by nine strokes with a closing 64 at the Scandinavian Mixed, hosted by Henrik and Annika. The nearest woman finished 14 back.
Beating the men, she said, was most important.
“All week i just felt like it’s the girls against the guys,” she said, “and whoever picks up that trophy represents the field.”
Grant, a former Arizona State standout, came into the final round with a two-stroke lead and birdied five of the first six holes at Halmstad Golf Club to begin her tear. She posted 26 birdies and an eagle in her 24-under performance in front of massive crowds. Her nine-stroke victory is the largest on the DP World Tour so far this season.
Linn Grant is presented with the trophy by tournament hosts Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson after winnng the 2022 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Swedish co-host Henrik Stenson, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 2016 British Open, finished second along with Scotland’s Marc Warren, who closed with a 65. Stenson shot 70 on Sunday.
The unique event, co-sanctioned by the LET and DP World Tour, features two different sets of tees for the men and women, who competed for the same $2 million purse. A total of 30 Swedes took part in the competition. Grant, who lives about an hour away from the course, embraced Swedish icon Annika Sorenstam after her extraordinary triumph.
Grant has now won three times in six starts this season, including her last event, The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open in late May. Grant won $30,000 for that victory in Belgium, and $319,717 dollars for the Scandinavian Mixed.
“I just hope that people recognize women’s golf, more sponsors go to LET than the men’s tour,” said Grant. “Hopefully this pumps up the women’s game a little bit more.”
Jason Scrivener leads but just two shots back are two women, including a 19-year-old college student.
The Scandinavian Mixed 2022 is a unique event in pro golf, with a field of 78 men and 78 women from the DP World Tour and the LET competing against each other for one trophy and one first-place check.
After two rounds, Jason Scrivener is 12 under and holds a two-shot lead. He had eight birdies Friday, including four in a row on his back nine, en route to a 64. He’s 214th in the latest Official World Golf Ranking and has yet to win on the DP Tour.
There’s a three-way tie for second at 10 under and there are two women in that group, including Italian Carolina Melgrati, 19, who just finished her freshman year at the University of Arizona. She started her week with a 65 and was tied for the lead after the first round. A second-round 69 has her in contention to win as an amateur this week.
Carolina Melgrati on the 15th green during the 2022 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden. (Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
“It is crazy! It is so great,” Melgrati said after her first round. “As soon as I got the invitation, I said yes, I’m playing because it is great to compete with professional golfers. It is amazing and that is also my dream, so it is coming true.”
Melgrati is joined at 10 under by Linn Grant, a former Arizona State standout who turned pro last September. Playing in her native Sweden, Grant won two weeks ago at The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open.
Also at 10 under is Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
The event has Volvo Car as the title sponsor, is co-hosted by Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson and is being staged at Halmstad Golf Club in Halmstad, Sweden.
Bjorn was the winning captain for Team Europe in 2018 in France.
Henrik Stenson will have at least one experienced, victorious Ryder Cup captain by his side in Italy next year.
The 2023 European Ryder Cup captain announced on Wednesday that Thomas Bjorn will serves as his first vice captain at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy from Sept. 30-Oct 1, 2023.
“I have known Thomas for my whole career,” said Stenson in a press release. “I trust him implicitly and I know any advice he will give me will be honest and direct. He will not simply tell me what he thinks I want to hear and that will be important, so I’m delighted to have him as my first vice captain for Rome.”
Bjørn, a 51-year-old native of Denmark and 15-time winner on the DP World Tour, has been involved in Team Europe in eight previous editions of the biennial contest – three as a player, four as a vice captain and as the victorious captain in Paris in 2018.
“He was very happy when I asked him. He was very honored to be asked and happy to be part of Team Europe again and part of the journey with the players,” Stenson said. “Since the match itself is still over a year away, I know I am going to have a lot of conversations with him about all elements of the Ryder Cup from his experience, both as a vice captain on previous occasions but also, obviously, as the captain in 2018 when we had a great result. I will be depending on him a lot and I’m really looking forward to those chats.”
Stenson was one of Bjørn’s 12 players in that successful team at Le Golf National and the Swede has confirmed his fellow Scandinavian as his first official appointment since he was unveiled as European Captain on March 15.
“I’m delighted to be part of the whole Ryder Cup experience once again. I probably thought that after 2018 that was it for me, but Henrik called me to talk about captaincy in general and that led into him asking me if I wanted to do another stint as vice captain, which I agreed to,” Bjorn said. “I think I can help Henrik outline what he wants to do with his captaincy going forwards. I can keep asking him the right questions and reminding him of things that are going to come his way that he might not have thought about. I will help him prepare in the best possible way and as we get closer to the match, to be an additional support to the players.
“I think Henrik will be a fantastic captain. He is so well respected by players and by everyone in the game. He is a very hard-working golfer and somebody who is true to himself, and his team will represent that. He has a great sense of humor that the players will take to, and he is very well liked across the whole Tour, not just the top where he has played his golf for so many years.”
Team Europe’s Henrik Stenson celebrates after winning the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in France in 2018. (Photo: David Davies/PA Wire)
Bjørn became the first Dane to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup in 1997 at Valderrama. He is no stranger to being a part of Team Europe’s backroom, having served on four previous occasions: to Bernhard Langer at Oakland Hills in 2004, then Colin Montgomerie at The Celtic Manor Resort in 2010, José María Olazábal at Medinah in 2012 and Darren Clarke in 2016 at Hazeltine National, which was his lone experience with defeat.
Bjørn oversaw a dominant 17½-10½ victory in France, with Stenson contributing three points from his three matches as Europe extended its unbeaten home record to six consecutive editions dating back to Bjørn’s debut in 1997.
Team Europe will be seeking to regain the Ryder Cup against the United States team which will be led by Zach Johnson, who has named Steve Stricker, the victorious 2020 U.S. Captain, as his own first vice captain.
Henrik Stenson is Europe’s new Ryder Cup skipper for next year’s match in Rome.
It’s nice work if you can get it. Conservative estimates suggest the European Ryder Cup captaincy is worth nearly $3 million in sponsorships and other lucrative odds and sods for the man at the helm.
When you’ve reportedly been offered $40 million to join a Saudi Super League, though, that’s chump change.
It was well-known in golfing circles that Stenson needed to provide an ongoing commitment to the circuit before his captaincy could be endorsed. You half expected some elaborate, archaic ceremony in which he swore his allegiance over some holy relics. Or at least a dog-eared copy of the Tour’s members’ manual.
“There’s been lot of speculation back and forth,” said the Swede of the Saudi situation which certainly won’t disappear in the months and years to come. “I am fully committed to the captaincy and to Ryder Cup Europe and the job at hand. The captain does sign a contract. He’s the only one that does that. Players and vice-captains don’t.”
With the elephant in the room brushed aside, Stenson could get on with talking about his new post. As a five-time Ryder Cup player, with 11 points from 19 matches, and a vice-captain last year, Stenson ticks all manner of boxes.
“They’ll get Henrik,” he said simply when asked what he’ll bring to the job. Stenson will do it his way and, as a popular figure with a sense of humor that’s as dry as a sawmill, getting Henrik is not a bad thing. “As a player, I’ve been Captain Chaos a few times,” chuckled the 2016 Open champion.
The 45-year-old will be the first Swede to captain Europe and there’s a fair bit of pressure on his shoulders. After the visitors were on the receiving end of a dreadful thumping by a rampant USA side at Whistling Straits in 2021, Stenson has to find a way of derailing the American express. And he doesn’t want to be the first European captain to lose on home soil in 30 years either.
Team Europe’s Henrik Stenson celebrates after winning the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National on Frane. (Photo: David Davies/PA Wire)
The might of a youthful and hugely talented Team USA was there for all to see last September. Europe, meanwhile, could be set for a changing of the guard with some seasoned campaigners making way for fresh talent. Whatever the make-up of his team, Stenson wants young and old alike to make a strong claim over the next 18 months.
“Looking solely at the age at Whistling Straits, I think our team was an average of 35 years and the American side had about a 26-year-old average,” he noted. “So we certainly had an older team and at some point there will be a shift and I can definitely see that happening this time around.
“But I can also see a few hungry veterans wanting to keep their jerseys. I know from my own experience that when you play in a Ryder Cup, you don’t want to hand that jersey to someone else. You are going to fight dearly to keep it another time. And that’s exciting for me as a captain. Everything is a possibility. The door is open to anyone with a European passport.”
The Ryder Cup may be over 560 days away but the job starts now.
“The Ryder Cup is golf, and sport, at its very best,” he gushed. “I got goosebumps every time I pulled on a European shirt as a player and that will be magnified in the role of captain. When I started out as a professional golfer, it was beyond my wildest dreams that, one day, I would follow in the footsteps of legends such as Seve [Ballesteros] and be the European Ryder Cup captain. But this proves that, sometimes, dreams do come true.”
It wasn’t to be, meanwhile, for Luke Donald, Robert Karlsson and Paul Lawrie, who were the other names in the hat. At 53, Lawrie’s chance has passed him by. Like Sandy Lyle before him, another Scottish major champion has missed out.
Sometimes, the captain’s cap just doesn’t fit.
Nick Rodger is a contributor to the Scotland Herald and Glasgow Times, part of Newsquest, which is a subsidiary of Gannett/USA Today.
Luke Donald still hopes his time will come, but the truth is he wanted the job in 2023.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Luke Donald can’t hide his disappointment.
He tries his best, says all the right things, hopes his time will come, but the truth is he wanted the job of European Ryder Cup captain in 2023 in Italy and it was a tough pill to swallow when Guy Kinnings, Ryder Cup director, phoned and broke the news that Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was the man to lead Team Euro in Rome.
“I thought I had a chance this time but it wasn’t to be,” Donald said with a Brit’s stiff upper lip. “I was disappointed personally that I didn’t get the nod but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it down the road. I wish Henrik all the best and support him along the way.”
Donald, 44, was on the short list along with Scotland’s Paul Lawrie and Sweden’s Robert Karlsson. Donald said he made a 30-minute presentation to the three most recent Ryder Cup captains – Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn and Padraig Harrington – as well as David Howell, chairman of the DP World Tour tournament committee, and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley.
Donald, who represented Team Europe four times as a player, played under four captains with different characteristics. He said Germany’s Bernhard Langer, captain in 2004, was the closest to Donald’s style and the most detail-oriented.
“This year, we’re really going to have to motivate the players to come back from what was a tough defeat,” said Donald, who served as a vice captain at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin when the U.S. routed Europe 19-9. “That defeat itself will give the players plenty of motivation to pick up their games. They didn’t perform nearly as well as they knew they could have. They faced a strong U.S. team but for whatever reason the players didn’t perform that well. We need to address that and make it better for a run.”
Europe’s Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald celebrate after winning the 2012 Ryder Cup at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois.
Donald has been groomed for a future leadership role having worked in the back room during the last two Cups as a vice captain at Paris and Whistling Straits. If asked to do a third tour of duty as a buggy driver, Donald said, “I believe I would. It’s not an easy job but it’s less stressful job than being a captain or a player. It’s a busy job. We have quite a lot we’re doing, but I love being part of a Ryder Cup.”
Despite being snubbed this time for the captaincy, Donald still holds out hope that his time will come, but realizes there is a logjam of potential candidates among the likes of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia, just to name a few.
“I thought I had a good chance this year. Hopefully, that’s not my chance gone,” Donald said. “We have a lot of very worthy candidates, legends of the Ryder Cup, guys like Sergio, I don’t know how this whole Saudi thing is going to play out and if anyone is going to get knocked out because of that. That’s a little bit of a question mark.”
Donald said he would’ve liked his chances to captain in Italy, noting that the U.S. hasn’t won the Cup on the road since 1993. But that doesn’t mean he’s opposed to trying to win a road match, including throwing his hat into the mix for Bethpage Black in New York in 2025. Given that he’s been based in the U.S. since 1997, Donald hypothesized that the Team Europe selection committee may think he’s better suited to lead the Euro’s 12-man squad on foreign soil in the U.S.
“It’s a tough crowd (at Bethpage), but I haven’t given them too much ammo during my career,” Donald said. “I think I’d be fine and would love the opportunity.”
For now, Donald is focused on trying to improve his own game. He’s missed the cut at his last three starts heading into this week’s Valspar Championship and has dropped to No. 574 in the world. A decade ago, he returned to World No. 1 with a playoff victory at the Valspar at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course.
“It doesn’t feel that long ago,” he said. “I remember a great 7-iron at the last. A 1-in-10 shot from a scruffy lie that came out perfectly to 6 feet below the hole and managed to slip it in the left-hand side of the cup to win.”
The Europeans, now headed by Henrik Stenson, are transitioning, but the Swede is not intimidated.
You would be hard pressed to find a restaurant that serves decent pickled herring or that has a selection of aquavit in Des Moines, Iowa, but the Hawkeye state’s favorite golfing son, Zach Johnson, the newly-named U.S. Ryder Cup captain, is going to get familiar with Swedish style over the next two years. And we’re not talking Ikea.
Two weeks after the PGA of America announced that Johnson will be the captain of the 2023 team that competes at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy, it was announced that Sweden’s Henrik Stenson will be leading the European Ryder Cup team.
Stenson, 45, won the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon in an epic battle over Phil Mickelson and was the winner at the 2009 Players Championship. He has competed in five Ryder Cups as a player and in his most-recent appearance went 3-0-0 at Le Golf National in Paris to help Europe win in 2018. His career record is 10-7-2, he played on three winning teams and was a vice captain last September for Padraig Harrington.
The start of the Ryder Cup is still 564 days away, but as Sir Nick Faldo, the losing European Ryder Cup captain from 2008, pointed out, Stenson’s job will likely be harder than a Viking winter.
Henrik Stenson is a great guy with one of the best dry wits around, but he has a really tough job on his hands as Ryder Cup captain.
Half the team will probably be the old school, the backbone with maybe six unknown-ish rookies.
It is far too early to project who will be on the team, but it’s safe to say that Stenson will be relying on Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. They are the only three European players currently ranked in the top 10 on the Official World Golf Ranking.
Tyrrell Hatton is 15th, Paul Casey is 24th, Shane Lowry is 36th and Tommy Fleetwood is 47th. Sergio Garcia, a bright spot for the Euros at Whistling Straits when he went 3-1, is currently No. 49.
Henrik Stenson celebrates a victory during Foursomes at the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National. (Photo: David Davies/PA Wire via AP Images)
The Americans won the last Ryder Cup by a record margin, 19-9, and it is deep with young talent. Compared to Stenson, Zach Johnson will likely be able to blend a team to suit the course and conditions from an abundance of riches.
Dustin Johnson, who went 5-0-0 at Whistling Straits, is ranked No. 10 in the world and will be 39 when the next Ryder Cup is contested, but Justin Thomas (ranked 8th), Jordan Spieth (ranked 14th) and Xander Schauffele (ranked 9th) will only be 30. Those three players won a combined seven points for the U.S. team in Wisconsin.
Scottie Scheffler, ranked No. 5, has won twice on the PGA Tour since going 2-0-1 at the 2021 Ryder Cup, and Collin Morikawa, ranked 2nd, has won two majors and went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits. They will only be 27 when the next Ryder Cup is played. The reigning FedEx Cup champion, Patrick Cantlay is ranked 4th, will be 31, and four-time major winner Brooks Koepka will be 33.
Among the players who were not at Whistling Straits but who might be blended into a team are putting and short-game specialist Kevin Kisner, the top-ranked ballstriker on the PGA Tour in Will Zalatoris, and rising star Max Homa.
Stenson said that the European team will decide at a later time how many captain’s picks he will have. Johnson has already said he will have six picks.
Regardless, the reverberations from the 2021 Ryder Cup are unmistakable. The United States has a deep, talented team that appears to be filled with players who are excited about playing and winning cups. The Europeans, now headed by Stenson, are transitioning, but the Swede is not intimidated.
“I know my players are going to be up for a challenge,” he said. “We saw a very strong American team at Whistling Straits. But we also saw that coming into Paris.”
The five-time member of Team Europe debuted in 2006 and most-recently competed in 2018.
The Europeans will have an experienced hand at the helm in Italy.
On Tuesday morning it was announced that Henrik Stenson will be the European captain for the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy. The 45-year-old from Sweden has been a member of five European Ryder Cup teams, most recently in 2018 at Le Golf National in France, and boasts a 10-7-2 record. As a rookie Stenson made the winning putt for Europe at the 2006 matches at the K Club in Ireland.
The news comes two weeks after the United States announced Zach Johnson, a fellow five-time Ryder Cupper, would captain the American squad.
The last time we saw Woods play golf on television was at this event back in 2020. Time really is a flat circle.
However, the Woods-duo isn’t the only big-name partnership headed to Florida. Defending champions Justin and his father Mike Thomas will look to triumph again. Bubba Watson will be playing with his father-in-law, while Nelly Korda will be playing with her dad, Petr.
Here’s a look at the 20 partnerships at this year’s PNC Championship, which requires that each team have a major champion. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando, Grande Lakes is the host venue.
