FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Long before Luke Donald was Europe’s captain at the Ryder Cup, he was an amateur golfer at Northwestern University in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That time in the Chicago area overlapped with the tail end of Michael Jordan’s heyday winning six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan liked to play golf, the two became friends and remain so, now living nearby each other in Florida. Donald has not let that connection go to waste.
“Michael is someone I’ve been very fortunate to get access to and pick his brain occasionally about what made him tick, what motivated him, how he was able to get the best out of himself,” Donald said Tuesday. “It’s nice to have someone that is a legend of their sport — the greatest ever, quite arguably — to sit down occasionally and pick their brains.”
Donald expects Jordan, an American, to be supporting the U.S. at the Ryder Cup this week (U.S. captain Keegan Bradley is also tight with Jordan). But one of the lessons of MJ’s career — which came through in the “Last Dance” documentary that Donald watched during the pandemic along with countless others — could help in the captain’s role.
“You can be a team of champions but not a championship team,” Donald said. “You always need the people around you. You’re always stronger being a collective. I think that’s something that I certainly took from him, and I’ve tried to implant on my teams the last two times, that we’re always stronger together.”