LIV pro blames ‘best players’ for golf’s feud, eyes Ryder Cup captaincy

With the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in the rearview, attention has turned to the 2027 event in Ireland. Should two-time winning captain Luke Donald turn down a third captaincy, former U.S. Open champion and Northern Irish pro Graeme McDowell is “putting [his] hat in the ring” for the big job.

McDowell revealed his Ryder Cup captaincy dreams in a new interview with bunkered.

But he also shared his fears that LIV-PGA Tour politics could prevent him from taking the job and blamed the “best players in the world” for pro golf’s “divisiveness.”

Graeme McDowell wants to be Europe’s Ryder Cup captain in 2027

If he hadn’t joined LIV Golf in 2022, McDowell would be an obvious pick for Ryder Cup captain. He’s a major champion, having won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and he played on four European Ryder Cup teams from 2008-2014, winning three times.

He also served as vice cpatain for the European team in 2018 and 2021.

And the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor would seem like a perfect fit. At 46, he’s at the right stage of his career to be captain, not to old not too young, and as one of the best golfers from Northern Ireland, he’d be a sympathetic pick in that regard.

In his comments to bunkered, McDowell admitted he’d “love to do it” and laid out some practical reasons he could be a good pick.

“I only saw a couple of comments where Luke [Donald] said maybe he doesn’t want to do it a third time,” McDowell said, referring to the 2027 European captaincy. “Justin Rose doesn’t want it because he wants to play. Rory [McIlroy] is obviously not even close, right? He doesn’t want to be playing captain. So it’s kind of like, ‘who’s it going to be?’ And why couldn’t it be me?”

But given the complicating factor of LIV Golf, which we’ll get into shortly, McDowell also expressed concern about whether pro golf’s politics could keep him out of the job.

“I think about it but I really don’t know what to do about it at the minute. I don’t want to be presumptuous by putting my hat into the ring. Because it may be something that the powers that be within Ryder Cup Europe are saying, well, that’s just not possible,” McDowell shared. “If it is possible, I will certainly do everything that I can to be the best Ryder Cup captain I can be. And obviously, I’d love to sit down with Ryder Cup Europe and, if it’s a possibility, find out what they would need me to do.”

He continued, revealing that if he were to be captain at Adare Manor, it would be the “greatest moment” of his life.

“As we move into the offseason, I’ll certainly make a few calls and see where the world stands. It would be the greatest moment of my life to stand there at Adare Manor as the Ryder Cup captain.”

McDowell calls out golf’s top players for ‘divisiveness’

But McDowell’s membership on LIV Golf presents a difficult barrier to overcome for his Ryder Cup dreams.

There’s nothing in the rule book that bars a LIV Golf player from being a European Ryder Cup captain or player. To be a part of the Ryder Cup or play on the DP World Tour, though, any LIV pro must maintain their tour membership and pay fines for playing on LIV.

McDowell revealed that he’s settled his fines, and though he’s not a DP World Tour member anymore, that could be changed if it helps him become captain.

But even then, his captaincy is a long shot. Henrik Stenson was penciled as the 2023 European Ryder Cup captain, but he was removed from the role after he joined LIV Golf.

In his bunkered interview, McDowell said he’d be “disappointed” if politics kept him from the captaincy, but admitted he’d also understand the outcome.

“I don’t know whether it should be on my mind at all, as in if it’s something that’s not possible politically,” McDowell said. “If that’s the case, clearly I’ll be disappointed, but I’ll obviously understand why. The world is where it is.”

But that doesn’t mean he would agree with losing the captaincy over his move to LIV Golf.

Instead, McDowell argued that the “best players in the world” are to blame for the LIV Golf-PGA Tour feud, not older players like himself who were trying to extend their careers by going to LIV.

“People will say I don’t deserve it and I’m responsible for a lot of what’s happened. But I’m a very, very small cog in this big wheel,” McDowell said. “The divisiveness has come from the best players in the world. It hasn’t came from the 40-somethings like myself that are just trying to eke out a living and staying competitive on an opportunity that was presented to us, which would have been crazy to say no to from a business point of view.”

Ultimately, McDowell suggested that making him captain in 2027 could help heal the pro golf divide.

“I would love to be the olive branch that potentially puts some of this back together again,” he said.

You can read McDowell’s full comments with bunkered here.

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