Younger blood is seemingly better when it comes to drawing on the wealth of Ryder Cup knowledge.
Justin Rose this week brings the wealth of six prior European Ryder Cup appearances, having made his debut in 2008 at Valhallla in Kentucky.
Rose was then aged 28 and now 15-years older he gives the European Team the experience of contesting 23 matches, winning 13, losing eight and halving two for 14 career points.
And with the affable Englishman remaining loyal to the European Tour and not jumping ship to the rival LIV Golf, Rose would most certainly be a name high on the list to be the 2025 Europe captain for the next Ryder Cup competition on US soil.
It would mean, if the European Tour continues to stick rigidly to its guns, the likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey would not be handed any future European captaincy reins.
Rose was asked his thoughts of such a scenario and if a European Team victory cause was losing-out in not drawing on the wealth of Ryder Cup experience currently competing under the LIV Golf banner.
“There’s a lot of winning culture still in the team, with the people in and around the team, the captain, the vice captains, Thomas (Bjorn), Luke (Donald)”, said Rose.
“Luke has got an incredible Ryder Cup record. The most winning from a percentage point of view. So the winning culture in our team is as strong as ever.
“I think that when you look in our team room, McGinley, Thomas Björn, like I say, José Maria, we had Monty in there, just people that are still connected to the European Team, and I would say invested in The European Team, there’s still a lot of winning culture around what we do.
“So obviously in life and in business and everything, there’s obviously transition phases where you need to look to new leaders, and what would be great is if you can kind of slip through that period of transition unaffected, and you know, you start to look to the next generation obviously to come through and to start to kind of have that winning culture.
“That could happen as early as this year. You start to get the rookies off to a good start this year at home, and suddenly you start to blood some of the future with positive experiences. Yeah, the transition starts, or maybe the transition started last time around at Whistling Straits, and now we’re coming through that already.
“But yeah, there is a difference. Obviously Westy, Poults, I know exactly the guys you’re talking about, and obviously as captains or vice captains or however they may or may not be involved in the future, they do have a lot to offer, of course, from experiences and that point of view.
“But the more we can kind of blood the younger generation coming through, the quicker you’re going to kind of skip through that transition phase”.
Of course, Donald has been wise to bring to the team room the likes of former winning captains Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Paul McGinley and Bjorn and all credit to him.
However, there can be no denying that any future European Team cause would only get stronger drawing on the experience of European Ryder Cup legends such as Garcia, Westwood, Poulter, GMac and Casey,
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