Luke Donald explains one of his 'tough decisions' for Ryder Cup defence as one man left disappointed

Colsaerts, who played on a winning European team at Medinah in 2012, has been replaced by Alex Noren on the Englishman’s list of right-hand men for this week’s clash at Bethpage Black.

Jose Maria Olazabal and Thomas Bjorn, both winning captains in the event, were reappointed by Donald after he decided to take on the role again after masterminding a 16.5-11.5 win at Marco Simone Golf Club, as were Edoardo and Francesco Molinari.

However, Donald handed the fifth and final spot to Noren, a member of Bjorn’s triumphant team in France in 2018 and a recent two-time winner on the DP World Tour, instead of Colsaerts, who admitted that he was “very disappointed” due to the Ryder Cup being “a competition that I live for”.

“Of course,” replied the European captain in reply to being asked if Colsaerts, who did a brilliant job orchestrating the crowd on the first tee in Italy, was a bit unlucky to have missed out.

Nicolas Colsaerts was ‘definitely in the frame’

“Those are tough decisions. Nico was definitely in the frame. Alex is someone that I know very well. I practiced a lot with him at the Bear's Club (in Florida). He knows a lot of the guys who are on the team. He's a little bit more US-based. Those were some more of the reasons that we went with Alex.”

If he hadn’t missed a chunk of the season due to an injury, Noren might have been here in a playing role, having won the Betfred British Masters, the final qualifying event, at The Belfry then, more recently, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

“Knowing about a month and a half ago I was going to be a vice-captain, I asked Luke, ‘what do you want out of me?’” said the Swede. "He said ‘you're going to be an extra set of eyes over a few players and be of any service they need’.

“I've only played one time, but I know it's different to play in the Ryder Cup than anything else. I'll do whatever they ask me to do. I'm really happy to be part of the team because I think Bethpage will be an incredible venue for the Ryder Cup.”