Tommy Fleetwood has told Justin Rose to do a better job than he did when leading Team Great Britain & Ireland at the Team Cup in Abu Dhabi next year.
Fleetwood, who resides in Dubai, was announced yesterday as one of the 18 confirmed players for the Ryder Cup warm-up event, taking place at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort from January 10-12.
The Englishman played a key role in last year’s edition, captaining the GB&I side in a four-point loss to Francesco Molinari’s Continental Europe team.
With Ryder Cup teammate Rose set to take over as GB&I captain for the second edition of the Team Cup, Fleetwood offered some advice to his compatriot during a recent roundtable attended by Gulf News.
“Do a better job than me,” joked Fleetwood.
“It was amazing for me. I wouldn’t consider myself at a stage in my career where I would be seen as ready to captain a team.
“It was an unbelievable experience and a massive honour to captain the GB&I side. I feel like I did learn a lot, but I believe Justin will be far more prepared than I was and far more ready for it.
“I think he’s probably at a stage where he’s naturally going to lead. Whereas I tried to lead, I kind of just felt like I wanted to play with the team as well. I’m looking forward to it.
“Justin and Fran (Molinari) are obvious candidates for future Ryder Cup Captains.”
The concept of reintroducing a Ryder Cup warm-up event - reminiscent of the Seve Trophy, held by the DP World Tour from 2000 to 2013 - arose after Europe’s heavy defeat at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
Determined to come back stronger, players and leadership began exploring ways to better prepare for future contests.
The strategy paid off. Just eight months later, Europe reclaimed the Ryder Cup with a commanding five-point victory over the United States at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome.
“Going back to getting the plane back from Whistling Straits, where we got beaten pretty convincingly, we were thinking of what we could do better and what would give us the best opportunity to compete in Italy,” said Fleetwood.
“One of the first things we came up with was having a team event again.
“Timing-wise, January in Abu Dhabi was absolutely perfect, and we were lucky to come up with the event. I do now think the ecosystem of Team Europe is to probably expect a captain of this team event to move on to being a captain in the Ryder Cup. It’s going to be great moving forward, and hopefully it can carry on.”
