THE RYDER CUP

September 26, 2025

Luke Donald

Bethpage Black Course

Team Europe

Quick Quotes

Q. If the we had given you the score line this morning, I'm sure you would have snap your hand up for it.

LUKE DONALD: Absolutely, so proud of the guys, how they played. Loved the morning. Obviously I know the Americans brought a lot of their best partnerships early on, 1, 2, 3 and to go out there and perform as well as we did against some strong, strong American partnerships was really, really pleasing for me. Really pleasing for the guys. It gave myself a lot of energy to the guys, even this afternoon playing for the first time. A great, great start.

Q. Considering the significance of what we've seen to the morning foursomes and how that may have impacted results in recent Ryder Cup history, how important was it for you and how big of a focus was it?

LUKE DONALD: Always you try and put out your strongest foursomes. We knew that on paper, the U.S. were pretty strong, especially in that format. You know we try to match them as best we could, and obviously to get 3-1 is a bonus.

But yeah, historically, it's always nice to be on that kind of side of the score line.

Q. You got all 12 players playing today. That experience, it must feel so heartening for you to be able to rely on the likes of Jon Rahm and Fleetwood and Rose.

LUKE DONALD: We have a great team, strong 1 through 12. I have a lot of faith in all of them. That's why we wanted to play all 12 today. It will set them up nicely for tomorrow.

Q. Various omens, you can look at the stats and the great start and what that may tell us for the next to days. Do you shy away or back away from embracing that or how do you shoulder that?

LUKE DONALD: We just see this as a great start. We did make a little bit of history with some of the results this morning, playing away.

But again, history, only one thing that people remember is who is the winner on Sunday. That is our goal and that continues object our goal.

Q. What's the main mentality for the morning?

LUKE DONALD: Well, let's regroup, have a good team talk tonight and figure out how we can continue this great play.

Q. After everything you saw, two very long sessions, what's your analysis of the day?

LUKE DONALD: Very excited and proud of the team, how they dug in there. It's a tough environment out there. The crowd was loud and like we expected. I was really, really impressed with how the guys came out of the blocks this morning, to win foursomes 3-1 against a very strong U.S. pairings. Those first two, they really brought strong players, and to come out on top was a great boost of confidence for our guys.

Q. Speaking of a great boost of confidence, after the success of morning session, how much at all did you change strategy for the afternoon?

LUKE DONALD: We didn't change strategy. We wanted to play all 12. We felt like we have a very strong lift, clean and place 1 to 12 and we had faith in all of them. So our plan was in place for the whole of Friday.

The adaptations and changes come more tomorrow if we need to, but we're very happy with how the plan turned out.

Q. We saw the pairings for tomorrow morning, no adaptations or changes as far as matchups, just a different order. What went into that?

LUKE DONALD: It's hard to break up those winning partnerships. So you try and put them out again and hope they continue. Again, we have a lot of faith that those eight were statistically and everything else that goes into the partnership, the strongest we had.

Q. What went into the thought process of breaking up the partnership of Ludvig and Viktor? Of course, Ludvig and Fitzpatrick put on a great show this morning.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, what they did in Rome, I'll be eternally grateful for, some of those matches they did. They were a great partnership. But it was two years ago. Profiles change a little bit and the course is different, too. We really felt Ludvig and Fitz were a little bit better suited to all those scenarios. So they proved it this morning how well they played.

Q. You've just seen the pairings for tomorrow morning. I know you're trusting the same players that delivered. Just talk us through your selections.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, we have a lot of faith in the four groups, the four pairings we let go out this morning. Again, 3-1 was a fantastic result, as I said. So you don't really want to break up those winning partnerships.

So I'm excited about the draw, and we'll be ready to go again.