EXCLUSIVE: Justin Rose wants 2027 Ryder Cup captaincy – but there’s a huge ‘if’
Last updated:
The bid to be Luke Donald’s successor at Adare Manor is underway. Justin Rose is high on the list but, the Englishman tells TG, he’s remaining on the right side of caution…
Forget wildcard predictions or whether Keegan Bradley can juggle playing and captaining at Bethpage – there’s another Ryder Cup debate brewing.
And it concerns who will replace Luke Donald as captain at Adare Manor in 2027.
The situation is complicated by so many stalwarts, like Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, defecting to LIV Golf and resigning their DP World Tour memberships.
That has left the Ryder Cup Committee with a limited pool of worthy candidates to pick from.
Enter Justin Rose.
The 44-year-old says he would “love” to captain Europe at Adare Manor in 2027. He certainly seems the obvious choice. He has a lot of credit in the bank with the European Tour Group’s top brass after rejecting LIV’s overtures, and that kind of loyalty carries weight and is likely to count in his favor when he enters into talks at the end of the year.
“I don’t want to speak too soon but it’s something I’d like to do, for sure, to be given the opportunity,” Rose told TG ahead of this week’s Scottish Open. “If the players felt like that’s something they would be up for, then absolutely. It’s an honor and responsibility that I would love and take seriously and give everything to.
“I would also like to potentially make it a tough decision by playing well because you don’t want to necessarily be a Ryder Cup captain too soon and obviously I don’t want to wait for it should it be part of my future.
“For now, it’s kind of not even on my radar really. But after this Ryder Cup, clearly there has to be someone next. It will become a discussion post Bethpage, but I think for now I would love to play another one.
“That’s my main objective. If I don’t play, I would love to be part of the team in some capacity, just to keep learning what goes into the management of the team and to contribute in any way, shape or form.”
Rose impressed on his first audition of sorts during the Team Cup, where he led Great Britain & Ireland to a dominant victory over Continental Europe as playing captain. Doing so has raised the prospect of the Englishman performing a dual role in Ireland, something he was keen to address amid the predicament facing Keegan Bradley and Team USA this year.
“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Rose said. “I’m not sure that’s a role we should be entertaining really. I think there would need to be very extenuating circumstances for that to be the case.
“I think what Luke has shown me and all of us is how hard it is to be a Ryder Cup captain. I think that’s really changed, I would say, over the last two or three Ryder Cups.
“I think in the past, some of those captains might have turned their attentions to the team months before the Ryder Cup but Luke has been working on this for two years. He’s probably read more books over those two years on man-management than he has in his whole life. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly.”
Rose was one of six captain’s picks for Rome two years ago and may need another favour from Donald if he is to secure a place on the plane to New York in September.
The 2016 Olympic champion has struggled for form as of late, missing three of his last six cuts and withdrawing from another since losing in a playoff to Rory McIlroy at the Masters. He opted to take three weeks off following the US Open and didn’t even pick up a golf club for a week after feeling burned out following the hangover from Augusta National.
“Obviously, when you get so close in a major, clearly you sense the disappointment and what might have been and could have been,“ said Rose. “But it’s not like I gave it away so there wasn’t a lot to dwell on in a way. You deal with a lot of the emotional aftermath.
“A lot of people have wanted to congratulate me, commiserate me, so there’s maybe that side of things. I did feel a little burned out, just after the US Open. I haven’t been able to grind it out like I normally do, so my scores have been slipping on some of those tough courses.
“Coming back to the UK, I’ve had a nice three weeks and I feel like it’s a nice reset time of year for me without much long-haul travel at the moment. I’m hoping that this week is a nice catalyst to have a good bit of a run, heading into the Open, the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and then hopefully the Ryder Cup.”
Rose currently sits ninth on the European Ryder Cup points list, with qualifying concluding after the Tour Championship and British Masters on August 24. Only the top six will make the team, with Donald picking the other six.
You can read a special 64-page supplement, previewing the battle at Bethpage, in the next magazine edition of Today’s Golfer, on sale September 4.
