GUIDONIA MONTCELIO, Italy – Decisions have already been made.

Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson confronted the prospect of by no means once more representing Team Europe and as an alternative selected Saudi riches.

Their lives, their careers, their alternative.

“But this week of all weeks,” Rory McIlroy mentioned, “it’s going to hit home with them that they are not here, and I think they are going to miss being here more than we’re missing them.”

McIlroy wasn’t essentially taking one other shot at these European stalwarts, not like he has prior to now.

It’s simply the truth, he mentioned, as he sees it on the bottom. McIlroy is likely to be proudest of his particular person accomplishments, however probably the most pleasant moments of his profession have come on the Ryder Cup – and people dwelling legends nearly definitely agree.

The FOMO will likely be actual.

“I always thought leading up to this week is when it’s going to hit home that they’re not going to be here,” McIlroy mentioned.

The 2021 Ryder Cup, after the worst defeat in historical past, at all times felt like a transitional second for Team Europe, with the core of the group largely getting older out.

Stenson served as an assistant captain for the primary time at Whistling Straits.

Garcia was turning 42.

Westwood and Poulter, each of their mid-40s, mixed to go 2-4.

Justin Rose was left dwelling.

Their collective determination to hitch LIV final yr elevated the chance that they’d donned the jersey for the ultimate time, with the gamers resigning their European tour membership and Stenson famously being stripped of the captaincy in favor of Luke Donald. (Garcia apparently had second ideas as lately as this summer time; the Telegraph reported that the Spaniard, who has earned probably the most Ryder Cup factors in historical past, contacted DP Tour chief government Keith Pelley about being reinstated in a last-ditch effort to be on the group, however was denied.) Though they had been not as related between the ropes, the assumption was {that a} higher void can be felt within the group room, the 4 gamers combining to make 33 profession Ryder Cup appearances. At that stage of their careers, Westwood, Poulter and Garcia had been basically taking part in captains – useful assets capable of reply rookies’ questions concerning the first-tee jitters, to squire round a newcomer in foursomes, to ship an impassioned speech if the group confronted adversity.

Those outsized personalities are actually gone, and although the sensation within the group room is likely to be unusual, and it is likely to be totally different – that doesn’t essentially imply it’s worse.

“I think it’s a natural progression for everybody,” Tommy Fleetwood mentioned. “I don’t think anybody really has to step up in particular, or talk about it, or take it upon themselves to do anything different. It’s just a natural cycle of what happens in those teams and the Ryder Cups. It’s different, but it’s nice to see the progression of what happens to guys.”

Setting the framework for a profitable unit this week is Donald and his assistant captains, with influential figures like Paul McGinley nonetheless deeply linked to the European facet. Donald amassed a 10-4-1 profession mark in these matches, and the soft-spoken Englishman twice served as a vice captain earlier than assuming the highest job. All members of his back-room employees, from Thomas Bjorn to Nicolas Colsaerts, had been both a part of a victorious group as a participant or captain, often each.

“There’s a lot of winning culture still in the team,” Justin Rose mentioned. “There’s obviously transition phases, where you need to look to new leaders, and what would be great is if you can slip through that period of transition unaffected and start to look to the next generation to come through and start to have that winning culture.”

The forty fourth version of the Ryder Cup is about for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone. Here’s a more in-depth have a look at the European group.

Said Donald: “I don’t think you necessarily need large voices within the team room; you just need pretty good clarity on why you’re here, and what the reason is, and how you’re going to accomplish your goal. These guys are very motivated, and they seem very unified. They seem like a great group of guys that are really getting along with each other and already creating that sort of unbreakable bond between the 12 of them.”

That’s why a lot of the duty nonetheless lies with the present gamers, significantly McIlroy, Rose and Jon Rahm.

Rose is 43 – almost twice the age of 22-year-old Nicolas Hojgaard – and feels one in every of his chief duties this week is to have an “open-door policy,” to make the newcomers really feel as snug as doable. Rahm remembers his first Ryder Cup, in 2018, when he didn’t ask any questions of the veterans. The bigness of the occasion can really feel daunting for even probably the most confident gamers, after which they step right into a locker room filled with legendary figures with impeccable résumés.

“It’s very easy to really be in your mind and your feelings because you don’t know how to process a week like this,” Rahm mentioned, “so ask as many questions as you can from anybody. There’s no such thing as a stupid question – just that curiosity is going to get you somewhere.”

Rahm made headlines a couple of weeks in the past when he mentioned it was “stupid” that Team Europe, as an entire, wasn’t leaning on Garcia’s expertise in some capability. Whether Garcia, Poulter, Westwood and Stenson will ever be welcomed again into the fold is an open query – the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi backers of LIV are working towards a definitive settlement – however within the meantime Rahm has taken it upon himself to faucet into these assets. He spoke with Garcia as lately as this week, and Poulter earlier than that, to achieve perception into how the Europeans can proceed its three-decade run of dominance on dwelling soil.

“To hear them talk about what they thought and what they felt,” Rahm mentioned, “is obviously invaluable information.”

But the central determine this week, as standard, is McIlroy, who’s making his team-high seventh look. Earlier this month, earlier than the BMW PGA Championship, the complete European group visited Marco Simone on a scouting journey – the primary time that they’ve gone early for a sneak peek of the host venue. To hear McIlroy, the additional cease was essential extra for group camaraderie than any statistical intelligence they gained from taking part in 18 holes. Around the hearth pit they shared tales concerning the Ryder Cup and their journeys in golf, concerning the experiences that bond them.

In the run-up to the matches, McIlroy mentioned it’s at all times been a precedence to make himself extra out there to his teammates. That isn’t at all times simple to do throughout the weekly grind of the Tour, when the gamers get caught up of their routines and their preparation and their very own private groups. But throughout weeks just like the Irish Open and BMW PGA, McIlroy has tried to attach with the newcomers – significantly Ludvig Aberg, Bob MacIntyre and Hojgaard – to verify they’re prepared for Rome.

“That’s the future of our team and the future of the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy mentioned, earlier than including: “I want them looking over to me; I don’t want them looking up to me in any way. I want them to see me like I’m on their level. There’s no hierarchy on our team. We’re all one part of a 12-man team, and we all go forward together.”

Fair or not, this week looks like a referendum on what the European group can and may appear like shifting ahead.

If they falter at dwelling for the primary time in 1993, it feels inevitable that there will likely be calls, in some corners, to reincorporate crucial figures of their era.

And if it’s merely enterprise as standard, one other victory in an extended line of them, then the transition may really feel full.

All of which has created an intriguing state of affairs – that these with probably the most at stake this week simply is likely to be those watching from dwelling.