Europe Ryder Cup captain's picks predictions: Who Luke Donald will take

Oct 8, 2024; New York, New York, USA; Europe team captain Luke Donald speaks during a press conference at Times Center. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

We know the full U.S. Ryder Cup team for the 2025 edition at Bethpage Black. Now? It's Team Europe's turn.

On Monday, Sept. 1 at 9 a.m. ET, Luke Donald will name his six captain's picks to join the sextet of automatic qualifiers (Rory McIlory, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard and Tyrell Hatton). Given that Donald knows the full team he's facing, does he tweak any decisions on those six players? We'll see.

As we did on the American side, we're making our predictions for who Donald will pick. He's got a lot of great names at his disposal, so there will be snubs for sure. Let's see if we can get inside his head and figure out the six who will be taken as they face the U.S. on Long Island.

Shane Lowry

He was just outside the top-six in the Europe standings, and his experience and game should make him the first lock of this group.

Jon Rahm

Dude earned 7.5 points in his Ryder Cup appearances and won the LIV Golf title this year. No way he's left off the list.

Ludvig Aberg

Remember when everyone was surprised to see his name on the team two years ago? It turned out to be the beginning of his ascension to stardom. Even after an up-and-down year, he should be back.

Matt Fitzpatrick

A pick with some questions about his Ryder Cup history. But given the way he caught fire as of late, he's probably the kind of choice you want.

Sepp Straka

There's A LOT of experience thus far with this team, so let's take a rookie who hasn't exactly lit it up as of late. But he was eighth in the standings and might be a developmental pick here.

Viktor Hovland

He won the Valspar. He was third at the U.S. Open. Yes, there were a lot of middling results besides those, but the T7 at the BMW and a 12th place finish at the Tour Championship give me reason to think he'll be taken by Donald here.

Who gets snubbed?