The Ryder Cup is underway in Rome, the best golfers from Europe and the USA doing battle. With Rory Mcilroy and Shane Lowry bringing their talents to Marco Simone Country Club, there will be plenty of interest on the island of Ireland as the weekend's events unfold. Europe have made a tremendous start.
Luke Donald's six picks for Rome 🇪🇺🏆#TeamEurope pic.twitter.com/vC8TI9pXcr
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 4, 2023
The European team is captained by Englishman and former world number 1, Luke Donald, while for team USA it is two time major winner, Zach Johnson. However, despite both men's considerable accomplishments as players, neither will need their clubs this weekend. Here's the story of why the Ryder Cup's captains do not play.
Brief history of Ryder Cup Captains
The Ryder Cup started out in 1927, as a competition between the best players from the United States against Great Britain and Ireland, although Ireland was only officially recognised in the team name in 1973. When the Ryder Cup began the captain and team was selected by the respective PGA organisations for each team.
The captain was tasked with setting the pairings for the matches. Along with making these decisions, captains played in the competition. There were some notable non playing captains such as Ben Hogan for the USA in 1949, while the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team had a non playing captain in 1933, 1949, 1951 and 1953.
It became the norm as the competition was extended to 3 days in the late 1950s and the late, great Arnold Palmer was the last captain to play in a Ryder Cup, in 1963.
Captaincy Roles and Vice Captains
Since 1979, the Great Britain and Ireland team has been extended to all of Europe. The captain is charged with selecting a team of vice captains, much like how a football manager has coaching staff working under him.
Throwback to Lee Westwood and Luke Donald beating Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the 2010 Ryder Cup. Huge result that helped turn the tide at Celtic Manor. Europe were losing 6-4 at this stage and would end up going on to win by just 1 point 🇪🇺
pic.twitter.com/LSc3c1clTx— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) September 25, 2023
This year's Ryder Cup Captains have selected 5 vice captains each for this year's matches. They are as follows;
Europe
- Thomas Bjorn
- Nicolas Colsaerts
- José María Olazábal
- Edoardo Molinari
- Francesco Molinari
USA
- Steve Stricker
- Davis Love III
- Stewart Cink
- Jim Furyk
- Fred Couples
While six players for each team qualify automatically, captains are charged with the important task of selecting the remaining six players in the team.
Once the all important weekend arrives, the captains will select the pairings for the foursomes and four balls across Friday and Saturday. Then all 24 players across the two teams play singles matches on the Sunday. The captains are charged with selecting the order in which they play.
