The 45-year-old former world No.1 is Europe’s first repeat skipper since Bernard Gallacher rounded off his third successive captaincy with an unlikely triumph at Oak Hill in 1995.
Catriona Matthew, skipper for the victorious European teams in 2019 and 2021, explains what practices are really like, how to manage expectations and making tough decisions.
After a prolonged and increasingly loud period of speculation, Henrik Stenson, who was named captain of the Old World side in Italy for next year in March, has been relieved of his duties.
The US has not won a Ryder Cup on European soil since 1993, and Johnson himself has never been to Italy, but already there was a sense that he embraced the challenge of undoing 30 years of history.