Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald claims the Group Cup was “very helpful” regardless of Nice Britain and Eire’s golfers wrapping up victory over Continental Europe with eight matches to spare.
Any jeopardy shortly evaporated as Justin Rose’s GB&I facet romped to a 17-8 triumph, with the general end result sealed by Tommy Fleetwood’s 3&1 win over Matthieu Pavon.
It gave the Englishman, who additionally claimed the successful level on the 2023 Ryder Cup, a 100% file this week.
Laurie Canter had already taken GB&I, who wanted solely two factors from the ten final-day singles contests, to the brink of victory by beating Romain Langasque 5&4.
When Tyrrell Hatton maintained his unbeaten file with a 3&1 win over Thorbjorn Olesen, the general end result was already recognized.
Regardless of such a lopsided occasion, Donald insisted this week’s gathering on the Abu Dhabi Golf Membership had been worthwhile preparation for Europe’s Ryder Cup defence at Bethpage this September.
“I feel it has been a really helpful week for everybody concerned – all of the gamers, myself and the vice-captains,” the European skipper instructed BBC Sport.
“We discovered loads a few years in the past and we’re persevering with to be taught for the problem we’ve got forward of us in New York.”
Donald led Europe to a convincing win to regain the Ryder Cup in Italy in 2023. “New York goes to be a unique setting to Rome,” he warned.
“Now we have been testing out some stuff when it comes to messaging and getting it throughout to gamers what it’ll be like and what it means to be a part of a Ryder Cup.
“There’s a number of younger guys right here however, on the identical time, a number of future potential gamers and it is about simply getting them to understand the significance of the Ryder Cup, what it means and the way a lot it will probably do for you as a participant.
“I feel each single individual will come out of this week feeling higher about what Ryder Cups imply, the historical past behind it and what they should do to be part of it.”
Rose is seen because the most definitely candidate to succeed Donald for the 2027 match and bolstered his credentials throughout this, his first style of captaincy.
By sending out Fleetwood and Hatton, his two strongest gamers, within the opening matches he confirmed a ruthless streak to finish victory as shortly as attainable.
“We all know how meticulous Justin has been in his profession about getting ready and doing the precise issues and getting essentially the most out of the whole lot,” Donald mentioned. “I feel he took this job very severely.
“I feel he understands that in some unspecified time in the future will probably be his time to be captain for the Ryder Cup. He picked my mind and I feel his messaging to the staff was spot on.
“I sort of left him to do it himself and he’ll clearly be very proud of the end result.”
Rose beat Julien Guerrier 3&2 and the unbeaten Paul Waring secured a 4&3 win over Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
It was not till the fifth singles contest that Continental Europe posted some extent with Niklas Norgaard beating Matthew Jordan 3&2. Antoine Rozner beat Matt Wallace on the ultimate inexperienced, as did Matteo Manassero in opposition to Tom McKibbin.
The continental captain Francesco Molinari tied with Jordan Smith earlier than Rasmus Hojgaard birdied the final to drive a tie with Aaron Rai within the backside match.
After securing the successful level, Fleetwood agreed that the three days of competitors had been helpful. “I really like the function that Luke has mentioned this Group Cup performs come September,” the 33-year-old mentioned.
“Everyone from Luke, the vice captains, the gamers, all of the stuff, they put such an enormous effort into this week as a result of it has such a significant function for September.
“Who is aware of what number of will make the Ryder Cup staff this time as it is a great distance away and we’ve got a number of particular person golf to play earlier than then. We’ll simply want to attend and see.”
