After upstaging Europe’s Ryder Cup stars at Wentworth, Alex Noren has revealed the responsibilities Luke Donald has tasked him with in his role as vice-captain.

Noren maintained his fine late-season form by winning the BMW PGA Championship for the second time in his career on Sunday, seeing off 11 of the 12 players that will represent Europe at the Ryder Cup in the US from 26-28 September, live on Sky Sports.

While Donald might have preferred to see one of his playing squad triumph, Noren’s victory serves to display the strength in depth that the skipper had available when finalising his team at the start of September.

Even Noren, who also won the British Masters in August, has no qualms about missing out on a second playing appearance at the Ryder Cup having featured in Europe’s 2018 victory in Paris.

The 43-year-old Swede told Sky Sports Golf: “I think the other guys have played better than me throughout the year. I’ve put in some great results now the last month, a little bit too late.

“I think the guys on the team are going to be fantastic. I’m really looking forward to the match more than anything in a long time.”

Noren had little time to celebrate his Wentworth win as Team Europe set off for a scouting mission at the Bethpage Black course that will host the Ryder Cup in New York.

Noren was just two weeks ago officially named as Europe’s fifth and final vice-captain after missing out on a playing pick, joining brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari, Thomas Bjorn and Jose Maria Olazabal as Donald’s support team.

He explained on Sunday how his late addition will see him take up a slightly different role to the other vice-captains.

Noren said: “I think my role is an extra set of eyes for Luke. He’s doing the most part, and the other vice-captains have done a lot of work.

“Knowing about a month and a half ago I was going to be a vice-captain, I asked Luke, ‘what do you want out of me?’ Obviously, I’m not going to coach or captain much.

“He said, ‘you’re going to be an extra set of eyes over a few players and be of any service they need.’

“I’ve only played one time but I know it’s different to play Ryder Cup than anything else. I’ll do whatever they ask me to do.

“I’m really happy to be part of the team because I think Bethpage will be an incredible venue for the Ryder Cup.”

McGinley explains Bethpage ‘reccy’

Former European captain and Sky Sports Golf pundit Paul McGinley, who is supporting Donald as a strategic advisor, provided further details of what the away side were looking to gain from this week’s trip to New York.

McGinley said: “It’s a reccy. We’ve never done this before for an away match en masse, everybody going together. All 12 players will be there.

“Luke has been planning this for nearly a year. He’s got some guest speakers, he’s got some ideas that the players are going to see. Everybody will obviously play the golf course too.

“And we’ll do the back-of-house stuff. We’ll get the tailoring done – all the stuff you would normally do in Ryder Cup week, that’s going to be done in the next few days on top of playing the course.

“It’s a real good bonding week. It worked very well going into Italy. It’s taken a lot of effort. A lot of credit to the players, every one of them six months out said absolutely if they make the team, they’ll be on the trip.”

What’s next?

There will be extended live coverage from every day of Ryder Cup week, starting on Monday September 22, where Team Europe look to regain the trophy with a historic away win in the United States.

Round-the-clock coverage of the opening day’s play will begin with live build-up from 9am on Friday September 26, ahead of full coverage from midday. Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.

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