More of the same, please, is the message from Luke Donald. And such is the momentum in Europe’s golfing ranks, it would be no surprise if the Ryder Cup positivity continues at this week’s US PGA Championship.
On Sunday, in the week before the year’s second Major Championship, Sepp Straka won his second PGA TOUR title of the season at the Truist Championship.
By doing so at the Signature Event, the Austrian joined Rory McIlroy as the only multiple winners to date across the Atlantic this year.
What was further highlighted is the depth in the European ranks. Of the top ten finishers at The Philadelphia Cricket Club in Pennsylvania, five were European.
Shane Lowry – a Ryder Cup foursomes partner to Straka at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in 2023 – was in a tie for second, with Tommy Fleetwood tied fourth, and Stephan Jaeger and McIlroy in a share of seventh place.
Unlike at The American Express Championship in January, when it didn’t offer Ryder Cup points as it was the same week as the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, this win for Straka was a big boost to his hopes of being back on the team, two years after his winning debut in Italy.
Not only that, the four-time PGA TOUR winner is now at a career-high ninth on the Official World Golf Ranking, one spot higher than Lowry.
Alongside Straka and McIlroy, Scandinavian Ryder Cup duo Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland have also won silverware stateside this year, as has would-be rookie Thomas Detry of Belgium.
Who could forget, either, that at the last Major – the first of the year – McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters Tournament.
On the DP World Tour, there are stories of emerging young European talent impressing too, would-be first-timer Laurie Canter staking a claim, while Tyrrell Hatton – already a three-time Ryder Cup player – has done his chances a favour, having won in Dubai at the start of the year.
So, as the world’s best gather at Quail Hollow Club – a venue where McIlroy has won four times before – Donald is understandbly in good spirits about Europe’s qualification process as he makes his 17th start at the US PGA Championship.
“It’s great. It’s always nice when potential guys on your team are up there each and every week playing against the strongest fields in golf and doing extremely well,” he said on the eve of the start of the 107th edition of the PGA of America’s premier event.
“When you have two or three guys up there, like at the Masters we had obviously Rory, Justin (Rose), Ludvig, last week Shane and Sepp, there’s always going to be one loser, as well, which is the tough part because I’m texting the guys hard luck.
“But inside I’m thinking, this is great, because I’ve got a few potential guys all playing really well.
“It’s a great problem to have. I love the momentum that we have so far.
“The players always seem to elevate their games in Ryder Cup years, and it’s good to see.”
Of the world’s top 30, 11 are Europeans. Healthy representation. Of those, nine have Ryder Cup experience, with Aaron Rai joining Detry in targeting a Ryder Cup bow at Bethpage in September.
With two more Majors still to play after this one, two more Signature Events stateside and a Rolex Series event in Scotland on the DP World Tour, there is a lot to still be played for.
A win this week could move a player from outside the top 100 on the Qualification Rankings into an automatic position.
