Graeme McDowell admits he would do anything to captain Europe at the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor but knows his dream is all but over with no end in sight to golf’s civil war having joined LIV Golf in 2022.
Once the final putt of this year’s Ryder Cup drops at Bethpage Black, both Team Europe and Team USA will reflect on what went right and wrong, depending on the result, with plans to either replicate or rectify for Adare Manor in two years’ time.
The Ryder Cup will return to Ireland for the first time since the K Club in 2006. Justin Rose, who will feature in his seventh contest, has been tipped as the favourite to succeed Luke Donald in Limerick.
The Englishman will be 47 but still harbours designs on an Indian summer in his career so he may have ambitions on making an eighth appearance. The original favourite for the role was Graeme McDowell but that door was slammed shut in his face when he moved to LIV Golf in 2022.
It was thought that the fracture in men’s professional golf would have been repaired by now, thus potentially reviving McDowell’s chances of captaining Europe on home soil. There is no obvious standout candidate for Adare Manor at this very early stage, so McDowell hasn’t completely given up hope of having a career defining moment.
“Of course I would love to captain Europe,” said McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion and a veteran of four Ryder Cups, including three victories.
“Two years from now it’s in Adare Manor and I mean it would be the greatest moment of my life if I could stand up there. Potentially unlikely, but I would do anything to have that opportunity and we will see.”
McDowell was one of the scapegoats when he joined LIV Golf in its inaugural year and has continued to receive criticism for his decision to join the Saudi-backed tour.
Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm will feature at Bethpage Black but Europe’s future looks uncertain with LIV reportedly set to stop paying players’ DP World Tour fines which would put Hatton and Rahm’s (and Tom McKibbin’s) chances in jeopardy for 2027.
With that bombshell, McDowell acknowledges that the chasm in men’s professional golf is as deep as ever and is disappointed that the Ryder Cup isn’t placed above everything.
“I understand what has happened and it goes back to the fact that we didn’t envisage how deeply fractured the golf world would become. I thought the Ryder Cup was above all of that,” he explains.
“It’s politics. It’s high-level politics. We are cogs in the wheel. It’s high-level politics and it’s extremely disappointing because I love the Ryder Cup. I’ve had some of the greatest moments of my life and career head and shoulders in that competition.”
It appeared that McDowell was on the textbook journey to a Ryder Cup captaincy at Adare Manor. The Portrush man made his debut at Valhalla in 2008 before playing a starring role in three consecutive victories in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
The 46-year-old also served as a vice captain on two occasions: to Thomas Bjorn (2018) and Pádraig Harrington (2021). Seemingly well-groomed for the role, McDowell desperately wants to be there in 2027.
“Adare Manor in 2027, I want to be there in some shape or form. I missed the Ryder Cup at The K Club in 2006 and that lit a fire beneath me which drove me for the next ten years of my career. I desperately want to be there at Adare Manor, I know I won’t play unless I get a bolt of energy from somewhere and have a big couple of years.
“To be the captain there would be a career defining moment for me.”
McDowell boasts an impressive Ryder Cup record earning nine points from 15 matches (60% success rate), while he holed the winning putt at the 2010 edition at Celtic Manor which went to a Monday finish.
Two years later, G-Mac was part of the greatest Ryder Cup victory of all time as Europe produced a comeback for the ages coming from 10-6 down ahead of the Sunday singles to beat the USA in a contest forever known as the ‘Miracle at Medinah.’
It is also the last time Europe tasted victory on US soil, a drought that Donald and his charges will look to end with arguably Europe’s best team since 2012.
McDowell has taken something from each of his Ryder Cup appearances. Despite coming out on the losing side in his rookie appearance in 2008, he was very impressive in winning two and a half points for Europe.
Valhalla gave him the belief that he belonged on the biggest stages in golf and it was the catalyst for his 2010 US Open triumph at Pebble Beach.
In 2010 he won the Ryder Cup for Europe in a pulsating singles tie with Hunter Mahan while in 2014 he assumed a leadership role as he and rookie Victor Dubuisson won both of their foursomes matches before he came from 3 down to beat Jordan Spieth 2&1 as Europe won at Gleneagles.
Funnily enough, Europe’s greatest triumph in Medinah thirteen years ago is a bittersweet memory for McDowell who lost his Sunday singles match to Zach Johnson – the only singles defeat of his Ryder Cup career.
“It was monumental,” McDowell says of that comeback in Chicago. “In a funny way it was bittersweet for me because I lost my singles on Sunday. It was the only singles I lost in the Ryder Cup out of my four appearances.
“So, I put Medinah right there with all four of my Ryder Cups as extra special, they are all great in their own way. Valhalla, my rookie year, we lost but I played nicely myself so I felt like that was me arriving on the biggest stage in the game. I played there and it gave me that belief that I can play on the biggest stages and succeed and two years later I won a US Open and I look at Valhalla as a big part of why I was able to have the peace of mind to go and win at Pebble Beach.
“Celtic Manor 2010, last match in the singles, I technically holed the winning putt which was pretty cool, legendary stuff with the Monday finish. Then of course, Medinah which is the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history on American soil and one of the best in sport.
“I was still part of the team and part of the magic, great Sunday night! I remember Saturday night when Ian Poulter had birdied the last five holes. We were bouncing off the walls in the locker room, and we were 10-6 down! We had no reason to be bouncing off the walls, but we were and that’s part of the magic that happened on Sunday.
“Gleneagles was my last Ryder Cup, and I went 3-0. I loved every minute of it but Medinah for me was a weird one. I got to stand on the sideline and watch my teammates win it for me after what I did in 2010, so it was a role reversal. They are all so special in so many ways for me.”
Home advantage has dominated recent editions of the Ryder Cup with Europe being the last team to win on away soil at Medinah, before that the last away win was for Europe in 2004 at Oakland Hills.
Team USA haven’t won on away soil since The Belfry in 1993. Winning away from home is obviously extremely difficult and McDowell expects Bethpage Black to be one of Europe’s toughest tests as they tackle a stacked US team, a notoriously difficult golf course and a fervent and partisan New York crowd.
“It takes a lot of fortune, you need a good team, you need to hole some putts. You need to be bullish and accept whatever the crowd are going to throw at you. I think Bethpage is going to be very interesting. It will be a very partisan crowd, it’s going to be a very loud crowd. I think a lot of these guys are experienced enough to have played in New York and know what to expect. They have some lively commentary shall we say and our players need to be hardened from a point of view to let whatever is thrown their way bounce off them and get on with their game. We have a great team and have a great shot at winning.”
This is arguably Europe’s strongest ever side and the team that Donald has assembled seemed unthinkable when the continent fell to a record-breaking defeat to Steve Stricker’s youthful USA side four years ago at Whistling Straits.
The emergence of LIV Golf forced Europe to have a clear out, rip up the script and put their faith in youth as 40+ year olds Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and McDowell were all cast away.
Since then, Sepp Straka, the Højgaard twins, Ludvig Åberg and Robert MacIntyre have all come into the fray while Viktor Hovland has been added to a Ryder Cup core of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood.
It’s a far cry from the jaded team that Pádraig Harrington led in Wisconsin. The last two European captains on US soil have seen Harrington and Darren Clarke try in vain to win away.
McDowell was a vice captain for Harrington four years ago but insists there should be no narrative around the three-time major winner that he was a bad captain because he lost. Instead, he is adamant that Harrington was a fantastic captain.
“I was there for Harrington’s Ryder Cup and there is this narrative of the hero and the villain with captaincy. If you win, you’re the man but when you lose, you’re seen as this villain for not manufacturing a victory. It’s bulls**t,” explains McDowell.
“Harrington was a fantastic captain, he left no stone unturned, the camaraderie in that team room was exceptional. The work Harrington put in on all levels was absolutely exceptional. It was a historic loss, but it had nothing to do with him being a bad captain, he was a great captain.
“That golf course was a certain type of golf course, and the US team were probably a little more prepared for the way the course played in the end because we played a practice round a few weeks before and we saw the wind that we saw and whatever. The bottom line is I am not a big believer in the captain being the be all and end all. It’s about the twelve players and about the camaraderie and the chemistry of the team. But it’s about holing putts because that’s the only way you can win.”
Moving to LIV Golf has cost McDowell more than potentially losing out on a Ryder Cup captaincy in Adare Manor.
If that was his opportunity for a homecoming then his other chance was spurned this year as he literally watched from the sidelines as the Open Championship returned to his home in Royal Portrush.
Unable to earn world ranking points, McDowell had to go through Final Qualifying for The Open but ultimately came up short. He did get the next best thing and a timely punditry gig with Sky Sports as part of their extensive Open coverage.
McDowell may repeat the feat at Bethpage Black but after a solid season on LIV Golf he insists he has more to give at a competitive level before picking up the microphone full time.
“Did I enjoy it? Yes. I would have enjoyed playing more but the commentary was a different perspective, little less pressure in there and we did a couple of pieces with SKY watching Rory tee off which was super cool. What he means to Irish golf, he is a legend of the game, one of six players to ever win the Grand Slam. It’s cool to have watched him on the journey and be part of that journey in his younger days, being beside him at Ryder Cups.
“I called him a friend then and I call him a friend now. I’m very proud of what he has achieved, it was great to be there in Portrush to feel the celebratory mood of the crowd.
“I’m certainly going to have a chat with SKY about Bethpage Black. We’ll see. I’m only ready to dip my toe in, I’m kicking that ball down the road as far as I can kick it. I want to play golf, I don’t want to trade the 5-iron in for a microphone.”
McDowell will have to play the waiting game as far as his Ryder Cup captaincy aspirations go. But one thing is for certain, one of Europe’s great Ryder Cup careers seems in danger of ending without that crowning sense of fulfilment.
Not capping off his career with the captaincy at Adare Manor would leave a feeling of emptiness and regret in McDowell’s stomach.
The above feature appeared in the 2025-7 edition or Irish Golfer. To view the full edition click below
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