Team Europe captain Luke Donald has insisted there will be ‘zero complacency’ in his bid to complete a historic threepeat over Team USA in next year’s Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. Donald is aiming to become the first captain in history to lead a team to three consecutive Ryder Cup victories, having masterminded a 16.5-11.5 win over the Americans in the 2023 edition Rome and a historic 15-13 triumph at Bethpage Black last September. Team Europe have won their last seven home Ryder Cups and are looking to extend that run in the centenary edition, live on Sky Sports, while Furyk has made changes to Team USA's qualification criteria and backroom analytics in a bid to end their winless away streak.
President Cup captain Brandt Snedeker said his victorious American team was "going to be a problem" in Ireland, despite needing a final-day singles comeback to avoid an embarrassing home defeat to the International Team, with Donald aware of the challenge his side will face. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "I have zero complacency about how strong the United States are going to be," Donald said in a press conference. On paper, they tend to be stronger than us through the world rankings.
"Obviously we have a great record at home but again, zero complacency. I've seen what Jim [Furyk] has been doing behind the scenes, changing the stats, changing the qualification system. He is very, very motivated to come here and put up a good fight.
"I'm just as motivated to keep finding those edges for my team as well but you know and I know that the US will be very strong." Furyk has been involved in every Ryder Cup in some capacity since 1997 and captained Team USA during their 2018 loss at Le Golf National, with the former US Open champion taking learnings from past contests into his second captaincy stint. "We know what we're up against," Furyk insisted. "We also know that it's been 34 years since we won in Europe - there's no secret.
I'm going to hear it over and over again, so I'm going to embrace it. "Luke and Dodo [Edoardo Molinari] have the opportunity to set the golf course up, trying to tip the scales to Europe. I know it's always been played, we come in, the Americans seem to be the favourites.
"This year, there's no chance that that could happen. We've got a lot of work ahead of us." On who the favourites are, Donald responded: "For us, underdog is a mentality. We always want to prove something to ourselves, to the rest of the world.
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