Who is playing for Team Europe at the 2025 Ryder Cup? These are Luke Donald’s 12 players

Whether or not they manage to win the Ryder Cup on US soil for the first time since the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012, the European Tour’s communications team can already thank Luke Donald. The Englishman, captain for a second straight edition – the first to do so on this side of the Atlantic since Bernard Gallacher in 1991, 1993 and 1995 – will be one of 16 figures from the Rome 2023 set-up to repeat the experience: 11 of the 12 players, with the only exception being Danish golfer Rasmus Hojgaard, who replaces his twin brother Nicolaj, and four of the five vice-captains, with Thomas Bjorn, Edoardo and Francesco Molinari, and Spain’s José María Olazábal all staying on. Sweden’s Alex Noren fills the gap left by Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts.

With the same material as two years ago and a little Photoshop retouching, the image campaign is set – not a bold strategy perhaps (bravery isn’t always the smartest policy in this competition), but a logical one given the outcome in Rome. Europe won there 16.5 to 11.5, taking three of the five sessions and drawing another, with every single player contributing. The weakest return was just half a point from Nicolaj Hojgaard. His twin will be the only debutant in a group that arrives at Bethpage with 32 Ryder Cups played and 20 victories between them, led on and off the course by Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy.

Team Europe for 2025 Ryder Cup

Jon Rahm (Spain, 30, three Ryder Cups, 7.5 points)

At 30, Rahm is heading into his fourth Ryder Cup with ten years as a pro already behind him. It all began on the 17th green at Le Golf National in 2018, when he holed the putt to beat Tiger Woods and unleashed a wild celebration – a moment that cemented him as the heir to Seve Ballesteros, Olazábal and Sergio García, who will be missed this week. His last major came in April 2023, and while his unusual second-place finish in LIV’s annual ranking may not hide the fact he hasn’t won in a year, his status in the team was never really in doubt. For the first time he arrives via a captain’s pick rather than automatic qualification, but Europe knows he’s the ideal soldier to face down the hostile New York crowd.

Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland, 36, seven Ryder Cups, 18 points)

By record and experience, McIlroy is Europe’s great totem. By age, he is the leading candidate to one day surpass Sergio García’s points record of 28.5. And by charisma, he shoulders much of the emotional burden in what will be three relentless days of pressure. The good news is that when Rory plays for Europe, he is a smiling assassin. Neither Bryson DeChambeau’s chatter – “he’s only relevant when talking about others,” DeChambeau told The Guardian – nor any intimidation games will unsettle him. McIlroy also comes in on a high: this season he won his first Masters, ending an 11-year major drought, and added titles at Pebble Beach, The Players and the Irish Open. A sixth Ryder Cup triumph would be the perfect closing chapter.

Justin Rose (England, 45, six Ryder Cups, 15.5 points)

Just beneath Rahm and McIlroy in hierarchy sits Rose, US Open champion in 2013, 23-time top-10 finisher in majors, former world No 1 and a member of four winning Ryder Cup teams. More than that, he’s a steadying force in the locker room – the man a captain would trust with a two-footer to win the Ryder ten times out of ten. Rose comes in fresh from winning the St. Jude Classic last month.

Tyrrell Hatton (England, 33, three Ryder Cups, 6 points)

Rome 2023 — which he closed out with three wins and a half — was his Ryder-level consolidation as a luxury supporting act. Since then, he has joined LIV alongside Jon Rahm and done just fine. Under the Basque’s umbrella, with whom he formed an indestructible pairing two years ago (4&3 over Scheffler/Burns and 2&1 against Schauffele/Cantlay) that will surely be reprised at some point this week, he has settled among the game’s elite. In that span he has one LIV win and two on the European circuit, and he was instrumental in helping Legion XIII to their first team title this season. Properly channeled, the volatile temperament that can work against him elsewhere may be a major asset when bullets start whistling over European heads.

Shane Lowry (Ireland, 38, two Ryder Cups, 2.5 points)

If Europe took anything good from the Whistling Straits debacle, it was what emerged in that holed putt from Lowry to beat Tony Finau and Harris English alongside Hatton. The burly Irishman — Open champion in 2019, a six-time winner in Europe and three-time winner on the PGA — was already known for high-end golf, but that high-voltage personality exploded in the middle of the rout, when the US led 9–3 after the first three sessions. That, and his closeness to McIlroy, underpin his selection after a quiet PGA Tour season beyond runner-up finishes at the Truist Championship and Pebble Beach.

Tommy Fleetwood (England, 34, three Ryder Cups, 8 points)

His thing with the Ryder was love at first sight. He debuted in 2018, forming with Francesco Molinari what became known as Moliwood, the first European pair ever to earn four points in a single edition (the most successful partnership remains Seve and Olazábal’s, with an 11–2–2 record). Since then Molinari has faded from the playing radar, though he remains in the team’s setup as a vice-captain in the last two editions, and Fleetwood — a metronome tee-to-green when he’s on — has become a wild card who has played with Hovland, McIlroy and Nicolaj Hojgaard. Long one of the best without a major to his name, last month he finally broke his PGA Tour hoodoo, timing his first US win with the season finale, the Tour Championship.

Matt Fitzpatrick (England, 31, three Ryder Cups, 1 point)

The most controversial of Donald’s six (too many?) selections. The reasons are obvious if you look at his numbers here: one win from eight matches over three editions. He didn’t get on the board for Europe until Friday foursomes in Rome, and he has the worst win percentage in European history at 12% — a full 21 percentage points worse than the next. But his name is also engraved on the US Open trophy, and he is simply one of the five best putters on the planet — gold dust in this context. That, plus four of his five top-10s this season coming since late June, argue for his presence.

Viktor Hovland (Norway, 28, two Ryder Cups, 4.5 points)

It may not have been his best year and the old consistency issues resurfaced compared to 2023, but even on his B-game he snagged a win, at the Valspar, and he was still one of Europe’s two most productive players last time, with 3.5 points matched only by Hatton. The pairing with Ludvig Aberg was a Nordic remake of Moliwood, an unstoppable force that steamrolled Homa/Harman on Friday (4&3) and Scheffler/Koepka on Saturday (9&7) — the biggest win in Ryder Cup history. They did fall in their final outing together, in the second fourballs session to Burns/Morikawa (4&3), but Europe have a long-term duo there through whom much of their survival at Bethpage will run.

Ludvig Aberg (Sweden, 25, one Ryder Cup, 2 points)

From his 2023 breakout — with wins on both sides of the Atlantic — to the end of 2024, he was Champagne Supernova. Since then, more Fade Away. He became the first European to play a Ryder before a major, paying back Donald’s faith with interest, and last year he closed his PGA Tour rookie campaign with three runner-up finishes, including at the Masters, his first major. This season he struck early, winning the Genesis — relocated to Torrey Pines by California wildfires — but then missed cuts at the US Open and PGA Championship and, in most of his six top-10s, never truly contended. A natural, understandable pause for a player who exploded onto the scene — and who still has a brilliant future, both individually and in this duel.

Sepp Straka (Austria, 32, one Ryder Cup, 1 point)

Not especially charismatic or combative; not a profile leader. But an ideal domestique thanks to his tee-to-green precision (top-25 on the PGA this year in strokes gained there, and in fairways and greens hit) and because he’s a birdie machine (10th in that PGA stat and 9th in scoring average). That makes him an option in both foursomes and fourballs, even if two years ago he won only one of three matches. He has four PGA Tour wins, the last two this season — at the AmEx and the Truist.

Robert MacIntyre (Scotland, 29, one Ryder Cup, 2.5 points)

As with Hatton, his role in Rome 2023 lifted him to a new plane. Confirmed as one of Europe’s best of his generation, the following season he took the Canadian Open and his home Scottish Open, and in this one he nearly closed out his first major at the US Open won by J. J. Spaun. Beyond that he posted another five top-10s, including second at the BMW Championship, and it feels like his ceiling is high. His formula with Rose worked in Italy and it’s another pairing Donald should repeat.

Rasmus Hojgaard (Denmark, 24, debutant)

What at one point in the season looked like a real possibility — seeing twin brothers defend Europe together — ended in a kind of fratricide: Rasmus became the only new face compared to Rome 2023 and Nicolaj the only omission. In his case, he lived more off the dividends from last year’s European finish — winning in Ireland, fourth at Sotogrande and second at the Tour Championship — than this PGA Tour season, where he missed five cuts in 18 starts and has just one top-10, a runner-up at the Zurich. His second place in Denmark last month, plus top-20s at the Open and British Masters, cemented an automatic berth that, judging by the rest of the captain’s picks, may be the only reason it’s him and not his twin wearing Europe’s sky-blue and yellow this time.

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