Luke Donald has appointed Edoardo Molinari as his first Vice Captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup which will be played at Bethpage Black, New York, USA from September 26-28, 2025.
Molinari will return to Donald’s backroom team after a highly-successful stint in the role for the 2023 Ryder Cup in his native Italy, where Team Europe secured a memorable 16 ½ – 11 ½ victory against the United States at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
The Italian, alongside his brother Francesco, was part of the victorious European Team as a player in the 2010 Ryder Cup at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. He has also won three times on the DP World Tour and made 402 Tour appearances to date.
The 42-year-old, a popular figure within the game, proved crucial to Team Europe’s success in Rome, with Captain Donald placing a key emphasis on Molinari’s statistical analysis model in the months leading up to, and during, the biennial contest.
Molinari said: “I’m very happy. It’s something that I’m very proud of and probably means I did a pretty decent job last time, so I cannot wait to help the team and Luke again in Bethpage and I’m really looking forward to it.
“Luke called me the very day he was named captain, a little before the official announcement, and said he really enjoyed working with me in Rome and would like my help again. We had another chat about a week later, maybe 30 or 40 minutes on the phone, chatted about a few things and he asked me and I said of course, I would happily do it all over again.
“I think Rory put it best in the press conference after Rome, he said the most difficult thing in golf these days is to win an away Ryder Cup. It hasn’t been done in many years now, Luke was part of the team in Medinah, the last one that Europe won away, and hopefully we can produce something similar.
“I cannot wait. I’ve never been part of an away Ryder Cup. I heard it will be very tough, very difficult, you need to have a lot of patience and calmness, but I cannot wait to get started. I cannot wait to be at Bethpage with the whole team, it’s going to be a long two years waiting for that week, but it will be extremely exciting and hopefully we can win again.”
European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald said: “Edoardo is someone I have got to know very well over the last couple of years and he’s going to be a great addition again for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
“He plays a very significant role. He’s playing full-time out here on the DP World Tour, he’s a good player, a Ryder Cupper and he knows what it’s all about. He’s around the players a lot and he works with a lot of players on their statistics as well.
“I’ll lean heavily on him with the qualification criteria and then when we get close to the matches, how the team is forming, how their skillsets match to the golf course at Bethpage and whether they’re more foursomes-related pairings, fourballs-related players, and putting those pairings together.
“We spent a lot of time together over the last couple of years, we grew very close. He was extremely important to the whole journey and the process and he’ll be even more important on this away one. If we can create some history and try and win away from home, it’s going to be a very, very sweet four years together.”
Molinari and his brother Francesco followed compatriot Costantino Rocca into Ryder Cup folklore when they represented Europe in the Ryder Cup in 2010 at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
The Molinaris became the first brothers to compete against the United States since Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt played in the 1963 Great Britain & Ireland team, when they played in the 2010 contest at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. They halved their fourballs match against Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar, while Edoardo contributed another crucial half point in his singles match against Rickie Fowler as Europe triumphed 14½-13½.
In addition to his three victories on the DP World Tour, Molinari was also the Challenge Tour Number One in 2009 and is a respected member of the DP World Tour’s Tournament Committee.
Before turning professional, Molinari won the 2005 US Amateur Championship and alongside Francesco, claimed the World Cup of Golf for Italy in 2009 at Mission Hills in China.
Text: European Tour Group Communications