The charm offensive is a necessary part of playing the diplomat. For European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, the days building up to Friday’s big tee-off have provided an opportunity to demonstrate his prudency with words.
If fighting words are confined to the team room, the public utterings from Donald – as usual – have been polite and gracious.
At some point during this weekend’s Ryder Cup, US president Donald Trump will make an appearance. Whether it proves a distraction – as happened when he turned up recently at the US Open men’s singles final at Flushing Meadows – or an inspiration to the home team (and supporters), remains to be seen.
For Luke Donald, though, there is the bigger picture.
RM Block
“I think any time a sitting president wants to come to an event, it just shows how big the Ryder Cup is,“ he said. ”You’ve got to see that as a mark of respect. President Trump is obviously a big supporter of golf and he knows a lot of the players this week and has met them before.
“I think you see it as that, as a mark of respect, that a sitting president wants to support an event when he has a very busy schedule. To find time for that shows something."
Another big presence expected on Long Island through the three competition days is former basketball star Michael Jordan, who developed a friendship with Donald when the Englishman attended college in Chicago. Donald, though, is under no doubts which side MJ will be cheering on.
“Michael is someone I’ve been very fortunate to get access to and pick his brain occasionally about what made him tick, what motivated him, how he was able to get the best out of himself,” he said. “Michael is also very close to Keegan [Bradley] and I’m sure Keegan has maybe leaned on MJ a little bit as well over the last year. He’s not going to specifically give me advice this time around, but certainly [through] my friendship over the years, I’ve picked up many things.
“It’s nice to have someone that is a legend of their sport, arguably the greatest ever, to sit down occasionally and pick their brains . . . but I think he will have a USA hat on.”
Donald believes he has been able to touch on elements of Jordan’s career to help his team in their quest for Ryder Cup victory on US soil.
“The thing I learned about MJ, and I think it came through in the [Last Dance] documentary, is that he was never going to do anything he didn’t ask his teammates to do.
“He set the example. He led from the front. You need your teammates around you. You can be a team of champions but not a championship team. You always need the people around you. You’re always stronger being a collective.”
