Continental Europe will look to retain the Team Cup when they face a Great Britain & Ireland side in Abu Dhabi this week.
Abu Dhabi Golf Resort’s National Course is again assuming hosting duties for the second edition of the Ryder Cup-style match play contest which marks the first event of the new calendar year on the DP World Tour.
Francesco Molinari – who captained Continental Europe to victory two years ago – will lead again against a Great Britain & Ireland side spearheaded by fellow Major champion Justin Rose.
Here, we check in on the ten-strong Continental Europe team bidding for a successful defence in the warm-up event ahead of the Ryder Cup, which will be hosted at New York’s Bethpage Black in September.
Francesco Molinari
Will forever be remembered as being one half of ‘Moliwood’ after he and Tommy Fleetwood forged a perfect winning partnership at the 2018 Ryder Cup. The Italian, who became the first European player to win a maximum five points from five matches that year, inspired Continental Europe to victory at the inaugural Team Cup in 2023, securing three and a half points from a possible four as he went unbeaten alongside Nicolai Højgaard. A six-time winner on the DP World Tour, including at The Open Championship in 2018, the 42-year-old was a vice captain for Luke Donald in Italy last year, is as experienced as they come and knows the value of this event in the bigger picture of a Ryder Cup year.
Nicolai Højgaard
Arguably the biggest beneficiary of the inaugural Team Cup, having gone from being a late call-up for his injured twin brother Rasmus to receiving a Captain’s Pick from Donald into the European side for the Ryder Cup later that year. After winning three and a half points from his four matches in Abu Dhabi, the Dane registered six top tens on the DP World Tour before his rookie Ryder Cup appearance where he contributed to Europe’s victory at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. A month later he capped his season with a first Rolex Series win at the DP World Tour Championship to become a three-time DP World Tour winner. He made his Masters debut at Augusta National last year and represented his country at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Rasmus Højgaard
2025 promises to be a big year for the 23-year-old. While he may have been in the shadows of Nicolai in 2023, it was roles reversed last year. Victory at the Amgen Irish Open last September saw him become the youngest player since José María Olazábal in 1989 to collect five wins on the DP World Tour. His runner-up finish to Rory McIlroy at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai only underlined how he has taken his game to new heights and a Ryder Cup debut stateside later this year will undoubtedly be in his sights. His bid will be boosted by now being a dual member on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR after finishing second on the Race to Dubai Rankings last season.
Matteo Manassero
Everyone knows his story, right? At 16, he finished tied 13th at The Open Championship in 2009 and also made the cut at the Masters a year later. At 20, he was already a four-time winner on the DP World Tour after becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club. But then things went awry in his game and found himself in golf’s wilderness for several years, dropping outside the top 1,800 on the Official World Golf Ranking. But from the Alps Tour and then on to the Challenge Tour, two victories in 2023 saw him return to the DP World Tour. He then won at the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa to end a near 11-year wait for his fifth DP World Tour win, before registering six further top tens – including back-to-back top fives at the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship – to underline he was competitive with the best fields. Now, at 31, he will combine playing on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR this year.
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Another in the production line of Danish golfing talent. Having only turned professional last year, the 25-year-old now finds himself in the midst of his rookie season on the DP World Tour, winning three times on the European Challenge Tour to earn automatic promotion. During his time playing collegiate golf for Oklahoma State, he teed it up alongside global star Viktor Hovland. Four top 20 finishes in five appearances at the tail-end of the 2022 DP World Tour season highlighted his potential, before he returned to the Challenge Tour to top the Road to Mallorca Rankings. In his first start of the new DP World Tour campaign, he finished tied eighth in Australia and he’ll hope to use this platform to continue making an impression.
Niklas Nørgaard
Known as one of the biggest hitters on the DP World Tour, ranking third for driving distance on the 2024 Race to Dubai, he rose from outside the top 300 in the world to inside the top 100 last year. Even before his maiden DP World Tour win at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, the Dane was enjoying his best season since graduating from the Challenge Tour in 2022. But the confidence gained from his win at The Belfry inspired him to four top 20 finishes, including a top ten in Abu Dhabi, over the closing months as he secured dual membership status. There is often a bolter that makes the Ryder Cup - could Nørgaard be the one in 2025?
Thorbjørn Olesen
One of six players across both teams to have Ryder Cup experience. The Dane played two matches at the 2018 Ryder Cup, notably securing a 5&4 victory in singles against three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth to help Europe to a memorable success in France. Now 35 years old, Olesen has won in each of the last three seasons and is a dual member for the second year in a row through the formalised pathway created through the strategic alliance between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR. An eight-time winner on the DP World Tour, he will view this as a good opportunity to further his chances of making his second Ryder Cup appearance.
Matthieu Pavon
The Frenchman arrives in Abu Dhabi after competing at The Sentry in Hawaii on the PGA TOUR, highlighting his rise to wider prominence over the last year or so. A professional since 2013, his breakthrough win on the DP World Tour came a decade later as he went wire to wire at the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid. He then birdied his final four holes at the DP World Tour Championship to complete a spectacular late dash to secure dual membership status. He then became the first French winner on the PGA TOUR since 1907 with victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, with another highlight coming in April as he finished in a tie for 12th on his Masters debut to earn an invite back to Augusta National Golf Club for next year in the process. He further underlined his status as one of the top players in world golf with a solo fifth place finish in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Will he go on to become just the fourth French player to appear in a Ryder Cup, after Victor Dubuisson, Thomas Levet and Jean van de Velde?
Antoine Rozner
While he may not have won in 2024, Rozner was the first to admit his fifth full season on the DP World Tour was his career best. With seven top tens, including a third-place finish at the DP World Tour Championship, the 31-year-old realised a career-long goal of securing status on the PGA TOUR for 2025. He earned his DP World Tour card by finishing eighth on the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca in 2019, a year in which he won back-to-back events. Five consistent campaigns have since followed. The Frenchman was part of the winning Continental Europe side at the inaugural Team Cup and he will hope to showcase his development across the three-day competition before embarking on the start of his new adventure stateside.
Romain Langasque
Langasque impressed as an amateur, winning the prestigious Amateur Championship in 2015 at Carnoustie to earn entries into both The 144th Open Championship and the 2016 Masters Tournament, making the 36-hole cut at both. The 29-year-old turned professional immediately after his appearance at Augusta, gaining promotion to the DP World Tour at the first opportunity after finishing ninth in the Challenge Tour’s season-long Rankings in 2017. The Frenchman claimed a breakthrough victory on the DP World Tour in 2020 in the ISPS HANDA Wales Open, and last season recorded two second place finishes and four other top tens to end the 2024 season 22nd on the Race to Dubai Rankings. His runner-up finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge towards the end of last year earned him the final pick for the Continental Europe side.
