Luke Donald on why Rory McIlroy embodies 'brotherhood' in Europe's Ryder Cup team

McIlroy is making his eighth appearance in the transatlantic tussle, but this is the first time he’s faced the Americans as a career grand slam winner after becoming just the sixth player to join that club by winning The Masters in April.

Four years ago at Whistling Straits, the Northern Irishman was left in tears after feeling he’d let his team-mates down by playing poorly in a record 19-9 defeat in Wisconsin.

But he was back to his best two years ago at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome, picking up four points out of five as Europe regained the trophy with a 16.5-11.5 victory.

Unprecedentedly, 11 of the 12 players from that team are now defending the trophy at Bethpage Black on Long Island this week and European captain Donald reckons McIlroy will be full of motivation in his bid to add another chapter to his success story in 2025.

The world No 2 also won The Players Championship for a second time in March before landing his 20th DP World Tour victory last month with a dramatic play-off success in the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club.

“Yeah, I think Rory has talked about this many times,” said Donald, who captained the European team for the first time in Italy after being drafted in following Henrik Stenson’s decision to sign for LIV Golf and is now bidding to join Tony Jacklin as the only skipper to win in both home and away contests.

“He loves what the Ryder Cup represents. You can see the emotion both ways. When he lost in Wisconsin, the tears were flowing, how he felt like as the player he is, he's a leader for the team, that he needed to play better and he felt like he let himself down and the team. That's kind of the brotherhood we have in our team.

“He sees himself as a leader but also just one of 12. We try and talk about that a lot. We all have an opportunity to contribute to the team. To have someone of his caliber, though, what he's achieved in the game is tremendous.

“But, for him, Ryder Cups are very, very important. He talked about how difficult it is to win an away Ryder Cup (as a member of the team that pulled off the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012), and I think if he was able to be on a winning team here, that would make this year even better than what he's already done.”