Luke Donald back in Captain mode following early look at Adare Manor

European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald says planning for the 2027 contest is already beginning to take shape after an early visit to Adare Manor last month.

Speaking ahead of his 18th appearance at the U.S. PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, Donald reflected on a trip he made with wife Diane and Vice Captain Edoardo Molinari as he begins the journey of leading Team Europe for a third successive time.

“Got in a little trip to Adare last month,” he told media on Wednesday as he prepares to make his first professional start of 2026.

“Had a good look at the golf course, had a good look at the hotel, and progress has started. Yeah, it's early days, but we're already ticking a few boxes and enjoying the journey again.”

Those early steps came just a month after the 48-year-old was announced as Captain for a third time, having led Europe to victory at Marco Simone in Rome in 2023 before retaining the trophy with a win at Bethpage last September.

That decision was not one Donald took lightly. His two winning campaigns have been marked by meticulous preparation, from detailed planning on and off the course to a leadership style that has earned admiration on both sides of the Atlantic.

That attention to detail has extended well beyond pairings and tactics. Donald was the first European Captain to establish practice trips part of the process in both Rome and New York, embraced data alongside Molinari and was willing to make bold calls when he believed they could give Europe an edge, including opening with foursomes in Rome for the first time since 1993.

The same approach shaped the build-up to Bethpage, where players were exposed to the atmosphere they could expect in New York with VR headsets and were surrounded by reminders of Europe’s four previous away victories throughout the week itself . From wearing tops inspired by each of those four away wins during practice days to the 'Our Time, Our Place' video and a team room built around Europe’s history on the road, the message landed as intended.

All of it demanded time, energy and conviction, and after making history with wins both home and away, Donald initially felt his captaincy might have run its natural course after New York.

Encouragement from players and support from his family, however, helped persuade him to return as he bids to become the first captain to lead either side to victory in three Ryder Cups in a row.

“I think that Sunday night -- I've said it before maybe a few times. I'm not sure if I've said it publicly. But Sunday night of New York, I thought that was my time as captain. I'm very fortunate to be able to do it twice and to be a winning captain home and away. I think you always dream of something like that happening, and it happened. I felt very good about that.

“But as the months went on -- I live in South Florida. I live very close to Rory. I live very close to Shane, Matt Fitzpatrick. I saw a few guys in Dubai in January as well. They were definitely very positive about me trying to go again. So I started to think about it because, if your players really want you to do it, then I would at least consider that.

“Then I really wanted to talk to my family. It's a little bit of a burden on a family. My oldest daughter is 16. In two years' time, she'll be going to college. I knew, if I took this job on, it would be more time away than if I didn't. So that was a consideration.

“It's been a hugely positive experience for my family. The winning helps. But they've enjoyed some of the moments, especially the weeks of the Ryder Cup. It's been great for my family. So they were very much behind it.”

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Ireland itself also helped make the prospect even more appealing.

“I think the last factor for me was just having a Ryder Cup where it was, in Ireland, a home Ryder Cup. I've played a lot of golf in Ireland over the years, and the welcome you always get from these people is pretty incredible.

“I think we could create a great environment for the Ryder Cup and one that it truly deserves. I think it will be a nice way to -- a nice way to end a Ryder Cup, being in Ireland with those kind of great golf fans.”

That sense of environment extends beyond the fairways. Diane Donald has long played an important role during Ryder Cup weeks and the couple have already begun discussing how Europe’s spaces within Adare Manor might best work for the team.

“Right now we're certainly having some discussions together at dinner whenever the time is right about the team spaces. Certainly I don't talk to her about the golf course. She doesn't really talk to me about ladies clothes.

“I just have complete trust in what she does, and she has complete trust in what I do. There are some overlaps. Like right now we're talking about team spaces. There's a distinct difference between part of the hotel to the other. One's a ballroom. One's sort of part of the old hotel, and which might be better for our team. Those are things we would discuss together.

“But there's definitely stuff that I have complete faith in what she does, and she has complete faith in what I do. So we don't need to go into too much detail then.”

For all the practical detail that goes into modern captaincy, Donald still believes the Ryder Cup’s emotional pull remains central to Europe’s identity.

When asked about Europe’s team spirit and how he fosters that, he replied that he feels that a shared sense of meaning still binds European players together, regardless of where life and careers may have taken them.

“So as a kid, I wanted to be in Ryder Cups. I wanted to be like Seve. I wanted to be like Nick Faldo. I wanted to be like Bernhard Langer. Playing in these teams because you could see the passion and how much it meant to these guys.

“Again, my job as captain is to obviously talk about that, but I think a lot of the players feel the very same way. They very much were inspired as kids to want to play in Ryder Cups. There's just a special meaning behind it. I think that's always the message I give to these players, and I think that can be quite unifying.

“I grew up in England. When I was 19, I came to the college over here in Chicago, and I've lived here ever since. Very grateful for the opportunities I've been given to play the PGA TOUR, to live in the U.S. Married an American; she has Greek parents, so she has some loyalty to Europe.

“I think you never forget where you grow up and what you represent. Every single player is the same way, I would imagine.”

While he didn’t give too much else away about how things are progressing, Donald did offer an early sense of how he believes Adare Manor will function as a Ryder Cup venue.

“It's a beautiful Tom Fazio [design]. Looks really pretty golf course, parkland. A decent amount of space there. It's not necessarily narrow. They did a regrassing this last summer for the option to potentially grow rough if we want to and narrow some of the fairways.

“It's just a beautiful parkland course in the southwest of Ireland, five-star manor house that has a lot of history. I think it will be a tremendous venue for a Ryder Cup. It's not a typical Irish links course by any means, but it's certainly a very good golf course.”