'Donald banking on experience for Ryder Cup bear pit'

Bethpage Black, in Farmingdale, New York state is hosting its first Ryder Cup

Luke Donald is Europe's continuity captain and not just because he is the continent's first repeat skipper since Bernard Gallacher in 1995.

Opting to go with 11 of the 12 who triumphed in Rome two years ago makes perfect sense for Europe's bid to defend the Ryder Cup in what, he says, will be a Bethpage "bear pit" at the end of this month.

All six of his wildcard selections - Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick - played in the 16½-11½ victory at Marco Simone two years ago.

With Rasmus Hojgaard snatching his debut through automatic qualifying, the Dane replaces his twin brother Nicolai in the only change. Never before has there been so little rotation of players between teams in Ryder Cup history.

And while the prodigious hitting of Marco Penge, the world beating putting of Harry Hall and the passion of Matt Wallace would all have been potential assets, Donald is banking on experience for this assignment.

"It is extraordinary, and even more extraordinary that we just switched one brother for another," Donald told BBC Sport. "We've changed one initial from Rome, I never imagined that it would be like that.

"You usually have people that lose form for whatever reasons and don't continually play at a very high level, but you have to see that these guys have played at a very high level and really earned their spot on this team."

'My goal is to create lasting memories'

Donald wants to harness that sense of continuity to find the formula that can yield a first away win since the 'Miracle at Medinah' in 2012. To do that, the skipper is preparing his team to cope with an expected hostile atmosphere.

"Of course, remembering what we did in Rome is pretty special, having those memories, those feelings, about what we achieved together as a team," he said.

"But I want to approach this from a different angle, a different set of eyes in terms of this as a different challenge. This is not going to be what Rome was like.

"We're going into the bear pit."

So the personnel might be virtually unchanged, but the approach will be altered. "We have to come at this with a really refreshed view of how we're going to tackle it," Donald added.

"Twenty months ago, when I was made captain again, this was my first thought. It's like, what are the things that haven't worked in the past away Ryder Cups, and how do we correct that?

"I've come at it from a different angle of communication with the players, what the environment requires and really doing a deep dive on that and the best practices.

"My goal as a captain is to create lasting memories with these players. We got to do it in Rome, and hopefully, we get to do it in New York, creating a week that they always remember.

"And I thought we did a pretty good job in Rome. So it's a big task to try and make this week even better."

Donald would not be drawn on whether he would have preferred his opposite number, Keegan Bradley, to have named himself as a playing captain.

"I've always tried to keep my leadership around things that I can influence and that was totally out of my control," said the 47-year-old European skipper.

"We know, he's one of their best players. And if he played, he was going to be strong.

"We also knew that if he decided to do that, it was going to be a lot to try and juggle both. But they seem to have many plans in place.

"He's made his decision. He's decided that he has plenty of talent to replace him.

"I know Keegan well. He's a good friend of mine and I understand that he's going to bring a strong passion, he's going to try and get his troops pretty fired up."

Now, though, we enter the phoney war; four long weeks of build-up that will see both teams gain competitive reps on either side of the Atlantic.

Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton play the Irish Open this week. They will join the rest of the team at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth the following week.

That is when the majority of Bradley's line-up take part on the PGA Tour at the Procore Championship in Napa, California.

There will be plenty of talk in the intervening period, with neither side overly keen on being regarded as favourites for the Bethpage showdown.

Donald has already started. "Obviously, on paper, they're very strong," he noted. "That home advantage is pretty good. So, I still do believe we are underdogs."

But, as expected, armed with experience to potentially upset the odds.

Listen back to a Ryder Cup special on BBC Sounds with Iain Carter, Oli Wilson and Trish Johnson analysing the European team.