STENSON MOANS AS DONALD COMES IN

HENRIK Stenson has underlined his upset at losing the Ryder Cup captaincy as Luke Donald is set to lead Europe in Rome next year.

Stenson was appointed captain on March 15, but the Swede’s tenure lasted just 127 days before his decision to join the Saudi- backed LIV Golf series meant he was stripped of the role with immediate effect.

The former Open champion had hoped to be able to continue in the position while still playing in LIV events, but a meeting with Ryder Cup Europe officials made it clear that was not acceptable.

Stenson said: “I made every arrangement possible here to be able to fulfil my captain’s duties, and I’ve had great help here from LIV to be able to do that.

“And still, the decision was made that I was to be removed. I’m obviously disappointed over the situation. But it is what it is, and yeah, we move on from there now.”

Stenson refused to go into details of the contract he signed on his appointment as captain, when he stated he was “fully committed to the captaincy, Ryder Cup Europe and the job at hand”.

And the 46- year- old also declined to expand on what he meant by saying he accepted the decision to strip him of the captaincy “for now”, with team- mates Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter pointing out that qualifying criteria for the 2023 Ryder Cup had yet to be announced.

“I just expect to be treated fairly going forward depending on what the outcomes are in this whole case,” Stenson said.

“And it is yet to be seen what decisions are to be made and when we will be notified of anything like the boys are saying here, qualification and vice captaincies and all the rest.

“So up until that point, we just wait for Ryder Cup Europe to announce.”

Asked about a report in that former world number one Donald would be appointed captain, Stenson said: “That’s news to me.

“Obviously I’m not in the loop on these things at this point. I don’t feel like I should comment on that until that’s official news, if that were to be the case.”