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.
Johnson has represented Team USA five times as a player and twice as an assistant captain.
Zach Johnson has often referred to himself as just an ordinary man from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Family and faith are the pillars in his life. Polite as the day is long. Laid-back, approachable, considerate, charitable. A down-to-earth spirit that seldom leaves him, his Midwestern values, if you will, always at the ready.
But Johnson sells himself short, especially when it comes to the emerald stages across the world where he’s done his work. With a green jacket in a locker in the Champions Locker Room at Augusta National and a Claret Jug on his mantle, as well as 10 pieces of hardware saluting his other 10 PGA Tour titles, the word extraordinary would aptly apply in reference to Johnson.
When he won the 2015 Open Championship, he joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo as the only players to win the Masters and a British Open on the Old Course.
That certainly isn’t ordinary. Now add Ryder Cup captain to his resume.
Johnson, 46, was officially named the captain of the 2023 Ryder Cup for Team USA Monday at PGA of America headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Johnson has played in the Ryder Cup five times (8-7-2 record) and the Presidents Cup four times (10-6-1). He’s also been an assistant captain the past two editions of the Ryder Cup and will be the 30th captain for Team USA.
His task in 2023? To end the USA’s 30-year drought on foreign soil in the 44th edition of the biennial matches against Europe at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy.
“It’s a great choice. Him being involved with the last couple of teams, being a player many times, is important. He’s a fierce competitor,” said Steve Stricker, who captained the Americans to a historic 19-9 win at Whistling Straits before spending weeks in the hospital. “As a player, he finds a way to get it done. He’s got a little bulldog mentality. All the guys know that about Zach. He’s a fighter. He’s the right guy to go overseas leading the team.”
Italy’s presence in the event will grow in 2023 when Marco Simone Golf & Country Club plays host.
Italy has made its impactful footprint on the Ryder Cup through the years.
Costantino Rocca took down Tiger Woods in singles in 1997, and the country never had a prouder moment in the event than in 2018, when Francesco Molinari became the first player from Europe to post a perfect 5-0 record in a rousing victory over the United States in Paris.
Italy’s presence in the event will grow in 2023 when it plays host to the Ryder Cup at newly revitalized Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, built only 10 miles outside the city of Rome. It will be the first time the Ryder Cup has been staged in Italy.
The course has undergone an extensive redesign by European Golf Design, performed in cooperation with course architect Tom Fazio II, whose father, Jim Fazio, was the course’s original designer. Marco Simone will become only the third venue in Continental Europe to play host to the historic Ryder Cup matches, joining Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain (1997), and Le Golf National in Paris (2018). Marco Simone was originally scheduled to host in 2022, but the schedule moved back when the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits was shifted to 2021.
Work on the golf course at Marco Simone, aimed to better capture the drama of match play, began in 2018 and was completed in the spring of 2021. The layout will feature some exciting risk/reward decisions for players in a match-play setting, and will give spectators great views not only of the action on the course but of such historic Italian landmarks as St. Peter’s Basilica and the Castle of Marco Simone.
Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome, Italy, will be the host site for the 2023 Ryder Cup. Photo by Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
“The assignment of the Ryder Cup to Italy is a source of pride for the entire national sports movement,” said Franco Chimenti, president of the Federazione Italiana Golf. “The incredible setting of Rome will enhance the event, making it unique. The project is what we always imagined, and above all what those who believed in this project imagined.”
The finish at Marco Simone should be exciting for matches that go the distance. The 16th hole can be set up as a drivable par 4, protected by water on the right and a creek that runs across the throat to the green. The 17th is a mid-length par-3 hole of about 180 yards that will yield birdies to great tee shots. The finishing hole is a long par 5 with water down the left side next to the putting surface and a sloping green complex.
Gian Paolo Montali, general director of the Ryder Cup 2023 Project, said those who knew the course from when it played host to the Italian Open in 1994 will find a venue that is “nothing like before.” Said Montali, “The Ryder Cup will be something else. In the beginning, we thought about a light restyling of the course, but it was completely redesigned with eco-sustainability in mind and the benefits of the work will also be enjoyed after the 2023 Ryder Cup.”
According to the European Tour, the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris attracted a record crowd for a Ryder Cup in Europe, with more than 270,000 fans in attendance. The event boosted the economy in France by an estimated 235 million Euros (roughly $275 million U.S.).
Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome, Italy, will be the host site for the 2023 Ryder Cup. Photo by Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
The 2025 Ryder Cup is scheduled to be played at Bethpage Black on Long Island, New York, which has been host to two U.S. Opens (2002, 2009), a PGA Championship and twice was home course for The Barclays, a PGA Tour event.
The 2027 Ryder Cup will visit Ireland for a second time, played at The Golf Course at Adare Manor in County Limerick. Adare Manor which opened in 1995, staged both the 2007 and 2008 Irish Opens. The Ryder Cup made its first foray into Ireland in 2006, with the Europeans soundly defeating the U.S. side at the Arnold Palmer-designed K Club in County Kildare.
