‘I think we’re back’: Padraig Harrington has high praise for Luke Donald and his European Ryder Cup team

Padraig Harrington watched European Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald make his six captain’s picks for the 2023 matches later this month and wasn’t surprised by the selections.

He was only surprised that Donald called him the day prior.

“I did get a very polite phone call from Luke telling me I wasn’t getting picked. I think that was polite rather than necessary,” Harrington quipped ahead of this week’s 2023 Horizon Irish Open on the DP World Tour.

“I think Europe is very strong this year. I think we’re back,” he continued. “I believe we’re back to the ’80s, the ’70s where our top players are actually the best players in the world.”

The Europeans currently have three of the top-five players in the world on their 12-man roster bound for Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, but as a former captain himself, Harrington knows the importance of depth and the dangers of being a top-heavy side.

“We need a strong pool of players so that some of the very top players can be rested for the singles. I think that’s the most important thing is that all the players play well,” said Harrington, whose European side was historically beaten 19-9 by the Americans two years ago at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. “We have the best players at the top for sure, but we need all of them to play well so the best players can sit out at least one match.”

Vice-captain Luke Donald and captain Padraig Harrington walk across the fifth hole during practice rounds prior to the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits on September 23, 2021, in Kohler, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

To his core Harrington believes he had a good team with a great attitude in 2021, result aside. If you ask him what happened, he’ll say the COVID-19 year was the difference maker.

“I think we just caught it on our turndown, their upturn. That one extra year of COVID, our team went from peaking to slightly off and never could come back,” he explained. “The U.S. team were peaking. That extra year got them into a great place. Many of the players were probably at their very peak in the U.S. at that stage. If you start looking at the names now with two years of hindsight, they were at the top of their game and the Europeans are only coming into that now.”

Here’s how each roster stacks up with two different ranking systems: the points-based Official World Golf Ranking and the head-to-head Golfweek/Sagarin ranking (more on that here).

U.S. roster and rankings

European roster and rankings

Story originally appeared on GolfWeek