LIV Golf's huge impact on Luke Donald's Ryder Cup selections

LIV Golf has dominated golfing discourse for the past year and its biggest on-course impact will surely be felt when the Ryder Cup is staged at the end of September.

The recent announcement of a commercial merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has offered a strong indication of a unified approach towards the future of golf, at least off the course.

But whether such unity will be on show at the Marco Simone Golf Club in Italy will be fascinating to witness, especially given how many departures to LIV Golf have hit Europe’s Ryder Cup team.

Donald replaced Stenson as captain

Europe is a general 2/1 shot to regain the Ryder Cup following their record-breaking defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021, while the United States are 8/15 to win on European soil for the first time since 1993. The strength in depth for the US means many golf bets for the Ryder Cup are likely to be based on the margin of victory. Most golf bet tips will also likely focus on a similar angle or the top points-scoring markets once the teams are announced.

Who European captain Luke Donald will pick in his team, though, is a major conundrum for the man who replaced Henrik Stenson as skipper following the Swede’s decision to join LIV Golf. Donald has six picks at his disposal, but he seems certain to be selecting from a group of players with limited, if any, Ryder Cup experience.

Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Bernd Wiesberger were all part of the 12-man team from two years ago and all are now members of LIV Golf. Former Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has suggested those players could come into consideration for the 2023 team if a return to DP World Tour membership can be arranged in time on the back of the recent shock merger announcement.

If that were to be the case, and much negotiation, maybe even apologising, were to go on behind the scenes, it would certainly place Donald in a quandary. He'd need to decide whether to call on the Ryder Cup experience of the likes of Garcia and Poulter and, if doing so, how that might affect team morale.

Ryder Cup experience a huge factor

The experience factor could weigh heavily on Donald’s mind as, of the other seven members of the 2021 team, only Rory McIlroy has played in more than two Ryder Cups. It would be a huge surprise if the other sextet – Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick – are not involved again, while calling on Justin Rose’s experience of playing in five Ryder Cups appears a certainty.

That would leave four spots open in the team, one of which could be claimed by a rookie via the European points list, with the likes of Yannik Paul and Jorge Campillo in contention.

Adrian Meronk and Victor Perez would be among the more obvious, and perhaps logical, picks for Donald if they do not qualify automatically, but the impact of LIV Golf has hindered the European team’s chances. The likes of Poulter and Garcia may not consistently play at the level of old, but the Ryder Cup is a different beast. Being able to call on at least a couple of those fiery and competitive veterans would surely be tempting if golf’s truce holds.