Captain Luke Donald was a rookie player in 2004 under Bernhard Langer and is still using learnings from the German icon
Precise Luke Donald insists he will tap into the learnings from first captain Bernhard Langer as he aims for a historic success at Bethpage.
The European skipper is attempting to win back-to-back having led the side to success on home soil in Rome two years ago.
Donald was a rookie Ryder Cup player 21 years ago when he was drafted into the side by Langer for the away clash against the United States at Oakland Hills.
However, despite being over two decades since that trip to Detroit, the Englishman has kept the experiences he banked from that landslide win.
Langer’s heroes smashed the hosts by a record scoreline in 2004 and the current team leader says he takes advice from the German and will use moments from Michigan when he gets to New York with his own squad at the end of this month.
Donald explained: “I hope I’ve learned a lot from Bernhard. I’ve said it many times, I feel like we have similar sort of personalities in the way we go about things. And I certainly have leaned on Bernhard in the past for his advice and what he did in 2004.
“I remember exactly some of his messaging, the way he went about it, the way he wanted to prepare. They had a strong team, you know, they had Tiger [Woods], they had Phil [Mickelson], they had Jim Furyk, they had Davis Love, some big, big names and we had a few rookies. I was one rookie.
“But I felt like he prepared us in a way that we were ready for that environment and so, yeah, I’ve absolutely learned a lot from Bernhard. And we’ll implement some of his ideas and how he went about trying to kind of win over the crowd.
“I think you understand that having a crowd behind you is really beneficial. You try to lean on that, especially if things probably aren’t going your way you use the crowd to lift you up.”
Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, he continued: “We got off to an amazing start in Rome, so we were never sort of on the back foot and I have to be prepared that that might not be the case in New York and have plans in place where things don’t go as well.
“That advantage we had in Rome is a disadvantage. The crowd, we have to expect them to be pretty harsh and pretty against us and loud and we’re going to have to have thick skin.
“So, again, I think understanding that and having some ways to deal with it, really getting the guys experienced and prepared for it. You can’t prepare for everything, but you try and do the little things you can to try and prepare them as well as you can. That’s all that we can do as a team.”
