Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald sits down with Theo Dorsey of ESPN West Palm Play to discuss winning the Ryder Cup, the Cognizant Classic, his new drink and more.
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Theo dorsy here at 1000 North joined by Luke Donald who is a a partner here at 1000 North also uh coming up on your second term as Captain for team Europe from the Ryder Cup coming off a Ryder Cup Championship and getting ready to watch a great cognizant classic of the
Palm Beaches first and foremost can we get a cheers to that cheers yeah this right here the Drake we have in our hand this is a a Luke Donald special can you explain this to this is a special um you know as as a partner here at thousand
They were very kind to uh commemorate the win at the Ridder cup with giving me you know a drink and you know we call this the the perfect uh Luke’s uh cocktail I think it is so little play on words with the with the golf but uh you
Know a little bit of a tip of the cap to obviously Rome where the riding cup was in Italy it’s a Negron very famous cocktail Italian and has a little bit of a UK influence of where I’m from with the London dry Jin as well so yeah and
Whoever comes in here you got to try it and I also hear it has a a bit of Palm Beach County flavor in it with the um with the vermouth um that they put inside of it so it’s it’s got kind of all three prom multi Global you see
Multi Global just like me as a player I’ll give it a quick sip here though yeah cheers yeah it’s really good the orange orange bitter also a really good nice just to sip on slowly yeah great enjoy a little little little cocktail before dinner now
My question to you is um I know this is to celebrate your your Ryder Cup Championship um you didn’t wait too long afterwards to also take that second term you talked about how much of a time commitment being the rider cup uh Champion or Captain is for you
Personally how much does it mean to you to be the second serving person for team Europe the first person to do that in two decades yeah it hasn’t happened obviously for a long time um very fortunate to to have the opportunity a couple years ago well last year I
Suppose uh in Rome and it was literally the best experience I’ve had on a golf course so you know that’s saying a lot I’ve had a decent career individually but to share that Victory and to work on something for a whole year um and give my teammates the best opportunity to
Thrive and to play for something more than themselves for me that was the best opportunity and when when they wanted me to kind of come back and and do a second term you know how could I say no so great honor uh very very humbled to to obviously be given that chance again
What do you think was about your leadership in the way that you guys performed that had people you know yelling two more years before you even got back from riding the high you have to ask the 12 guys that played but um yeah you know I spent a long time
Working on on a plan to give my guys the best opportunity for Success you know creating a purpose creating um a very much uh a team where there wasn’t really much hierarchy everyone had a voice everyone felt like they belonged and I think that’s you know what you’re trying
To do as a as a leader because that’s intuitively that’s what we all Thrive you know it’s why family is important why you know being being a part of something you know an environment or a collective where you feel like you can Thrive and that’s you
Know that’s all I tried to do and create in within the rider cup so what does the work look like and when does it start here for building out your roster coming up with strategy points I know 2025 still more than a calendar year away now
But uh I know I’m I’m assuming work starts soon the work has already started really I mean I’ve had a few Zoom calls already with the the team I’m starting to think about um you know possible Vice captains already announced um uh Eduardo Molinari who was kind of my stats Guru
You know he does all the the kind of planning in terms of statistics and and and checking on the players and how they’re performing um to had some conversations about the clothing um you know we we’ve got six or seven months until qualification starts so still having thoughts about that um having
Thoughts about you know how do we perform uh in a tougher environment in New York you know and manage a tougher crowd a h more hostile crowd you know we had the crowd on our side in Rome so this time they’re going to be mostly pro pro us so you know just those
Conversations have already started and uh you know it’s nice to have a little extra time to to try to figure some of that stuff out and speaking of pro us as a as a guy that is well known to be friends with Michael Jordan here I got
To ask you some Insider info when the Ridder cup comes around I know he’s your pal who who’s he rooting for as he told you he’s always rooting for the US you know Michael I mean he’s ultra competitive he obviously wishes me well and hopes that uh you know I have a good
Captaincy but uh you know he’ll be he’ll be supportive of Team us and he’ll want them to win especially after what happened in Rome of course of course you H how much of other sports consume you when you’re not on the golf course like what are you fans of um and kind of
Watching your spare time you know I’m I’m excited Ed for um this Netflix you know the golf the full swing episode uh season 2 is coming out in March um you know we’ve got we we have two episodes all about the Ridder cup so I’ve been
Watching some of that stuff you know um they had one on Rugby they had one on Formula 1 they’ve had you know all kinds of different ones but but I you know even just on the weekends I’ll watch some NFL I watch a little basketball yeah obviously I love football soccer
You guys would call it um you know watch a bunch of that uh in the mornings on Saturdays too cuz we have such access to it over here so I watch a little bit of everything really okay so I have a cross Sport and also cross racial comparison
For your legacy and career I want to know if you’re a game for it yeah let me hear it hear okay I don’t know how familiar you are with basketball in the NBA but Luke Donald in golf I think I know who you’re going to say I’m I’m
Guessing you’re going to say Steve ker what no no now are you saying that because of yeah no I you know I was decent at three-point shooting and now he’s become a great coach you know Great Captain great that is a good call that is a great call actually I was going to
Go with Carmelo Anthony okay oh are you liking that I I don’t know much about Cameo I mean I know he’s a great basketball player to know you know what he what he did in basketball succeed you tell me let me give it to you let me
Give it to you where’s this comparison going so you 1999 not as tall Cameo I know that well look look you 1999 in college what did you win I won an NCAA NCAA Championship Carmelo also has the NCAA Championship I like that you can’t talk Luke Donald and golf without
Bringing up your International accomplishments with the Ryder Cup four for four undefeated plus you’re doing your second captaincy with the uh Europe and you won as a captain won some uh Carmelo he’s synonymous with gold medals in Team USA there you go and and on top
Of that as well a guy that you can’t talk about the the game of basketball in the past couple of decades without mentioning Carmelo Anthony’s name same thing here for Luke Donald I thought it was a great comparison look ask MJ what he thinks about that one he’ll love it
I’ll ask him I’ll ask him I appreciate that anyone who’s successful as celo I’ll take that and Steve K we’ll do Steve C too I got I was just going with the whole Captain you know leader you know I like it Tak on a similar hair do
Haird sometimes C rocking yeah I’ll do we could do Steve KT too slightly you know slightly more my size too yeah are you good from the corner what’s your best spot in basketball do you play it all uh I played up until I was like 13
Or 14 I was you know a little yeah like Steve a bit more of a three-point shooter I didn’t have much inside game yeah well you know what you live out there it’s safer out there you don’t mess up you need um let’s get back to the game of golf everybody’s excited
About the launch it feels like a new uh reinvigorated cognizant classic of the palmm beaches that’s coming up here you’ve been in Jupiter for a long time now more than a couple decades you also have played 15 plus times in the previously named uh Honda Classic sure
How important is that tournament to this area and how important is it the names and the draw that they’re getting this year it’s it’s extremely important this is a a great place obviously for a lot of uh professional golfers that there’s it’s a Melting Pot for guys that play on
The PGA tour there’s many people here that come for the Great Gulf the great weather um it’s easy to travel to for a lot of the got tournaments we play on the PGA tour but you know this it’s always I think you have an event like the the cognizant classic it’s signed on
For a number of years now back at PGA National a very iconic golf course it brings in a lot of sponsorship um a lot of uh dollars for the local community obviously Jack Nicholas is involved with the children’s charity as well and they benefit immensely from um you know the
The the amount of attention and having an event here so it really does help the local community and raise raise awareness and raise raise money for for Charities that are very needed and um you know obviously helps to have some great names you know this year we have
Ricky we this year we have uh um Rory um I think six of the 12 people actually who played on my on my ridy Cup team in Ro Rome for for Europe are playing so you know you’re going to have see some good names some some not very known
Names and uh usually it’s pretty Rowdy out there you get a lot of good crowd a lot of young people coming to support um and it’s always a fun atmosphere now you didn’t win yours at PGA National but you did win the previously named Honda
Classic back in ‘ 06 not to be confused with Luke McDonald the 2016 Honda Classic Champion but you uh what do you remember from that 06 year and again for those that don’t remember that’s a call back to name 2006 um I you I ended up
Winning that one by five shots kind of going a you know my nearest competitor was Billy Mayfair it was across the street at at mirol I’ve had a couple opportunities to win at PJ National I think finished second once or twice um but uh yeah I just remember it being a
Great week uh had some friends from England actually flying in that week after I’d planned a week off and to win and then have some friends in town to celebrate was was a perfect ending for for what was an amazing win my second PJ tour win right that’s what I was going
To say that had to feel so much different back then because that was you know before a lot of the now Career Success that you have um when you think about how you celebrated stuff like the Ryder Cup Championship how much different was that celebration to the post 06 Honda Classic celebration well
The rider cup I decided not to book any tournaments for for for the rest of the year after the rider cup just in case we won so I could really celebrate but uh you know I think the the older I get the more I appreciate these sort of moments
And I try to you know enjoy them as much as possible cuz you I think when you’re when you’re at the peak of your career and you win you know it’s it’s always what’s next you know you go into the next week and you have another chance so
It’s hard to hard to celebrate those victories sometimes but the rider cup uh I certainly did when does that kind of start to set in for for a guy like you that has seen so many different wins and so many peaks in his career and has had
The spotlight on them as a former number one golfer in the world like when do you start to get that introspection and start to feel like hey let me be more enjoying in the present versus trying to be as everybody is super duper that 22
Of being um well you know I think the older I’ve Got The more I’ve realized you have to enjoy that Journey because you know in golf anyone who’s tried to play golf even professionals at the highest level there’s always room for improvement you can never get to the top
Where you you mastered everything and that’s the same in any sport in any job really there’s always Improvement that’s why you have to enjoy the journey because there is really no end because you always have that opportunity to get better well we’re going to look forward to seeing you in your next few
Tournaments uh we’ll both enjoy the cognizant Classic this year Spectators a cheers the perfect Negron a special here and they can get it at 1,000 North absolutely yeah amazing I’m grab one thank you so much to Luke Donald um I appreciate you a partner here at 1000
North I’m Theo dorsy with ESPN West Palm play and uh we’ll be seeing you in that Ridder cup soon see you soon y
