European Ryder Cup veteran Justin Rose wants to play for Luke Donald at the 2025 Ryder Cup rather than succeed him as Team Europe captain.
Ahead of the biennial contest at Bethpage Black, Europe’s players urged Donald to remain as their skipper after he guided them to victory in Marco Simone last month with players chanting ‘two more years’ in the aftermath of the five point win.
Rose, who will be 45 when the 2025 date rolls around has been highly tipped to succeed his fellow Englishman but feels he still has loads to offer as a player and that Donald should be given a second bite of the cherry to lead Europe to a first away success since 2012.
“We all recognise how difficult it is to win away nowadays and whichever captain does it can claim the ultimate Ryder Cup success,” Rose told the Telegraph.
“But if it happens in 2025, I want to contribute as a player. If Luke wants it, he should get it. 2025 is too early for me.
“The captaincy starts next year and I feel like I’ve got some good things ahead of me as a player. It’s not so much that I feel I ‘need’ to play at Bethpage, it’s more than I ‘need’ to believe I can play. That’s important.
“I acknowledge there is probably no perfect juncture at which to do it, and that if I was asked I might have to make the big commitment, even if it would affect my playing ambitions, because it’s a huge honour.
“But I think there is a time when it’s your sweet spot to be captain. You have to be current, can’t have stopped playing, because that link has to be there. So it’s a fine line.
“But in my view Luke is probably coming to that sweet spot right now.”
Rose is also one of the realistic candidates for the 2027 captaincy when the Ryder Cup comes to Adare Manor in Limerick.
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