The Entire European Ryder Cup Team Showed Out in England and Hopes That's a Sign

All 12 competed in the DP World Tour's flagship event at Wentworth, with each making the cut and seven finishing in the top 12.

SURREY, England — It’s not often you get all 12 Ryder Cuppers playing in the same event, nor that they all make the cut or seven of the 12 finish in the top 10, but that exactly what happened for the Europeans in the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday.

Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka and Ludvig Aberg all finished high on an impressive leaderboard at the DP World Tour’s flagship event.

MORE: See what the Ryder Cuppers earned at the BMW PGA

And it was all music to European captain Luke Donald’s ears, fewer than two weeks out from the 49th edition of the biennial matches.

“They come in with a lot of good form again, so very happy,” Donald said after his round Sunday. “I think this tournament, it always seems like the first round there's a few like random names and then always by the end, you always get sort of the cream rising around here. So very happy with their form and excited to get started in Rome in a week.”

Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm played in the same group Sunday at Wentworth :: David Cannon/Getty Images

McIlroy agrees with Donald that the European Team is in a good spot and believes its recent time in Rome just continued to contribute to the team shaping up very well.

What is also a constant theme is that the European 12 are ready to go as soon as they can, and that a week from Friday cannot come soon enough.

“It's still almost two weeks away until the first ball is hit on the Friday morning, but I'm sure you'll ask all the boys that are coming in here they are all just so excited to get to Rome and get going,” McIlroy said after his final round.

Eleven of the 12 will be taking the week off, except Robert MacIntyre, who wants to play his way into Ryder Cup week since his two wins on the DP World Tour came when he played the week before.

For the rest, the next stop is Rome under what the players see as Donald's solid leadership.

“I think he's been fantastic,” McIlroy said. “He took the job in very weird circumstances I guess but he's taken it in his stride, and he's been fantastic with me.”

The weird situation was the naming of Henrik Stenson as captain and then the unceremonious dropping of the Swede when he joined LIV Golf.

It was Donald who picked up the pieces of a European Team that was easily handled with a 19-9 beating two years ago at Whistling Straits, but Donald moved on from there.

Donald—just 11 years older than McIlroy—had only played in four Ryder Cups. This will be McIlroy’s seventh as the undisputed leader with much more experience than the rest of the team.

“He doesn't expect me to stand up there and make big speeches or say a lot of things, but if I can lead by example and be the first one to the team room in a meeting, first one on the bus on the way to the course; anything like that,” McIlroy said. “Doing all the things that you should do and not getting complacent, that's the way I would like to lead if I'm asked to and, as you said, lead with my clubs and making birdies and getting blue on the board.”

In the trips to Rome in the past year or so and then again last week, Donald and his team have learned that Marco Simone may be a tough place to play.

A hilly course and with the temperatures warmer than it historically have been in September in Italy, the European Team is taking precautions that normally would not be on the list.

Caddies may or may not be able to go 36 holes a day, which Donald has discussed with his team.

Lightening the load in the bags of extraneous materials including umbrellas, waterproof clothes and extra towels as well as changing bags out to optional carry bags is part of the Donald plan.

“Talked to a few players that you'd probably think that might play five (matches) and had some conversations with them about what they might be expected for the week,” Donald said. “I think adrenaline is a big, big thing in Ryder Cup. So, most of the guys, if you ask them to play five they would want to play five, but you've got to think about Sunday, you've got to think about the (Sunday) singles because that is 12 points out of the possible 30.”

Donald confirmed that between the course and the potential hot weather that certain players used to playing in five matches may not, as freshness is the more important factor in the decision tree.

One other important factor which all the players have talked about is the fact they will be coming into Rome having played competitively versus a U.S. team that mostly hasn’t teed it up since Atlanta at the end of August.

“The Americans will certainly be well-rested,” McIlroy said. “I don't think there's any substitute for being sharp and playing tournaments. The only thing is its match play and not stroke play so it's a little bit different, but I don't think us playing a little bit more over these last few weeks is going to hurt us at all.

"If anything, I would say it's certainly better for me. I wouldn't have liked to go into the Ryder Cup with my last start being the Tour Championship but that's personal preference. I like to play my way into the big events.”

While his players go off to get prepared for Rome, Donald will spend some time in London thinking through his early pairings and how his team will may get the Ryder Cup back.

"I'll be here in London just kind of getting my thoughts straight and just making sure that I'm comfortable with all kinds of the scenarios and what might happen,” Donald said. “Just trying to plan the best to give these guys the best opportunity.”