Luke Donald and Zach Johnson, the respective Europe and USA Ryder Cup captains, have spoken often this week without saying much. That is not a criticism. In fact, it is meant as a compliment.
It is just their style. Johnson has the air of a man terrified that he might say something interesting in public. Donald exudes the contentment of a man who knows that will never happen.
They are determined this Ryder Cup will not be about them but their players. Centre stage is not their natural habitat. ‘I don’t think you need loud voices,’ Donald said on Tuesday morning. ‘Sometimes, words don’t need to be said.’
At a competition where the preamble is dedicated to shows of conspicuous consumption and meretricious wealth and where the motto ought to be ‘More is More’, Donald’s dedication to minimalism of expression makes for a welcome contrast.
And amid the excess, Johnson’s relentless Iowan modesty feels like a beautiful antidote to the loudness that is all around.
Zach Johnson (left) and Luke Donald (right) have spoken often without saying much this week as they are determined to make the Ryder Cup about their players and not themselves
There have been prior Ryder Cups dominated by the character of the captains but this won’t be another one – which could be to the benefit of both sides going of past competitions
Their leadership style lacks the emotion so often seen by Seve Ballesteros (pictured) and is more about the ‘nerd herd’ of analysts
‘Even I have never heard of me,’ Johnson said after he won the Masters in 2007. ‘My boring, mundane, diligent kind of golf works sometimes. Boring works. I like to play what I call a-motional golf. Emotion doesn’t grab me much.’
So this will be the Ryder Cup where the Quiet American and his English counterpart take the reins. Their captaincies, their distrust of the spotlight, their obsessive attention to detail and their shared reserve will be a fascinating alternative to the obligatory abandon that has become such a feature of the event.
There have been previous editions of the Ryder Cup dominated by the character of the captains but this is not going to be another one. At some Ryder Cups, the captains have been the leading men, not necessarily to the benefit of their teams.
At the 2004 event at Oakland Hills, just outside Detroit, many were convinced the USA were walking into a disaster even before a ball had been struck, as soon as they heard Hal Sutton Jnr’s speech at the Opening Ceremony.
The US captain thanked his fourth wife, Ashley, who was sitting nearby, for bearing him three children. Ashley managed a rictus smile and held up four fingers, to remind him of the number of kids they actually had. Sutton’s captaincy went downhill from there.
Sutton — nickname Halimony —spent the weekend riding around in his golf buggy wearing a cowboy hat. His decision to pair Tiger Woods with Phil Mickelson, for both the morning and afternoon sessions on the first day, has gone down as one of the worst moves in Ryder Cup history. Europe romped to a record away victory.
Four years later, Nick Faldo proved that great players do not necessarily make great captains. Once again, the die seemed to be cast at the Opening Ceremony when Faldo made a speech that betrayed a lack of thought and preparation.
He referred to Soren Hansen as Soren Stenson, got confused about whether Graeme McDowell came from Northern Ireland or the Republic and cracked a series of awkward jokes that fell flat.
The captains will vacate centre stage when the Ryder Cup officially gets underway on Friday
When his projected pairings were captured on his notebook by a photographer, earlier in the build-up, Faldo claimed they were a sandwich order.
There are more. If Faldo got Soren Hansen’s name wrong, Corey Pavin went one better by forgetting to introduce Stewart Cink altogether ahead of the USA’s defeat at Celtic Manor in 2010. Tom Watson, the US captain in 2014, was ripped to shreds by Mickelson at the post-competition press conference at Gleneagles as they sat on the same dais.
And if there was one captain who inspired by force of personality, it was Seve Ballesteros, who micro-managed Europe’s famous victory at Valderrama to a manic degree and gave the impression that he was perilously close to seizing a club from his players at any given moment and taking a shot himself.
It is interesting that the image of Ballesteros, the epitome of passion and charisma, is everywhere in the European team room at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. His image will be the last thing the players see before they walk out to play, next to a sign saying ‘Forever in our hearts’.
‘Seve is our ultimate symbol of what makes a European player great,’ Donald said in his video tour of the team room that was released on social media earlier in the week. ‘His spirit and his enthusiasm and his soul will be with us all the way. Forever in our hearts.’
But if Ballesteros is revered by Donald as a player, he and Johnson will take a very different approach to the Spaniard as captains. Their leadership will be less about emotion and more about the ‘nerd herd’ of analysts that help to inform their decisions.
Their style will be less Ballesteros, more Bernhard Langer, Hal Sutton’s meticulous nemesis at Oakland Hills. It was no surprise that both Johnson, who has spoken often of how he is bolstered by his religious faith, and Donald delivered humble, considered, intelligent Opening Ceremony speeches on Thursday. No gaffes and no premonitions of impending doom for one side or the other.
Johnson even strayed from that a-motional approach briefly when he seemed to be on the brink of tears as he paid tribute to his childhood golf coach, who is here in Italy.
Donald scored an early win for diplomacy by delivering the opening lines of his speech in Italian and thanking his caddies.
Now, at least, the talking can stop, the action can begin and the two quiet men of the 44th Ryder Cup can vacate centre stage.
