Europe captain Padraig Harrington is hoping the Ryder Cup can โtake one for the world of team sportโ and go ahead this year after announcing Luke Donald as one of his vice captains.
The biennial event between Europe and the United States is scheduled to take place from September 25-27 in Wisconsin, although the coronavirus pandemic has left it in doubt.
There have been 13 events cancelled or postponed so far on the PGA Tour, with the action scheduled to resume on June 8.
Players such as Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm are not in favour of the event being held behind closed doors โ but Harrington wants the much-anticipated event to go ahead for the good of the game.
Harrington admitted on Sky Sports Golf: โNone of the players want a Ryder Cup without the fans.
Welcome to the team, Luke! 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/qFeuPEFYdV
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) May 5, 2020
โThe reason we play the Ryder Cup is for the glory of being out there, we get the opportunity of being like a footballer out in the middle of a stadium with people cheering.
โThat doesnโt happen unless youโre winning a tournament and youโre the home favourite but at the Ryder Cup that happens all the way through for six days.
โThe players crave that โ they donโt get paid to play โ so they crave that opportunity for glory.
โNo one wants to play behind closed doors but they (tournament organisers) are keeping a prudent eye on it and they know if the PGA Tour events in June go off well behind closed doors itโs a possibility.
โThe players donโt want it but we might have to take one for the world of team sport and put an event on that people can watch. It wouldnโt be the same for us but weโre craving sport on TV.โ
The 48-year-old Irishman continued: โI keep saying if they put on any live sport, a lower division football game, weโd all be watching it because we want to see something live, something thatโs unexpected.
โThe unpredictability of an event would be nice, you donโt realise what you miss.โ
Europe were led by Thomas Bjorn when they won the 2018 event and Harrington hinted at a new vice-captain in an interview on Tuesday, revealing he had spoken on the phone to โLukeโ.
Ryder Cup Europe later tweeted confirmation that Donald had been added as a second vice captain at Whistling Straits, with Swedenโs Robert Karlsson appointed in September 2019.
Donald, whose four Ryder Cup appearances as a player have all resulted in European wins, had earlier posted on Twitter: โI thought this was supposed to be a secret @padraig_h.โ
Former world number one Donald last appeared at a Ryder Cup as a player at the 2012 โMiracle of Medinahโ and recorded an impressive 10.5 points out of a possible 15.