Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and rookie Thomas Pieters have been selected as the three wildcards for Europe’s Ryder Cup team. After a win in Denmark last week, Belgium’s Thomas Pieters did enough to persuade Clarke to choose him over Scotland’s Russell Knox.
Advertisement
American captain Davis Love will name three of his wildcard selections a week on Sunday, with his final pick not being announced until five days before the tournament begins.
Those finishes saw Pieters skyrocket to 41st in the Official World Golf Rankings, and that, coupled by his other strong finishes this season, made Pieters a strong choice for Clarke. Most debated was the final pick, which went to Pieters.
Darren played alongside him for the first two rounds and I know he was hugely impressed, telling us that Pieters was awesome and would go on to be world No1, no question.
Pieters underlined the confidence Clarke so admires in the the answer he gave when asked what he would bring to the team.
“It’s pretty cool to be honest”.
Pieters added in his press conference: ” He (Clarke) has got plenty of good players to pick from, so if he doesn’t pick me, then so be it and I’ll work my butt off to get there in the next one.
Martin Kaymer also made a special mention of the young Belgian.
According to Clarke, he is “massively proud” of his team and they are all “hungry for success”.
European captain Darren Clarke admits telling Russell Knox he had missed out on a Ryder Cup wild card was one of the toughest moments of his career.
“Martin Kaymer is somewhat of a Ryder Cup stalwart and another man I have enormous trust in”.
“You know, it was a very hard choice for me to make between Russell Knox and Thomas”. The 24-year-old fought off competition from Russell Knox, Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald to force his way into the team for his maiden appearance. He’s played well this year, he was runner-up at Augusta and week in, week out he has been very solid.
Westwood will make his 10th consecutive appearance in next month’s contest at Hazeltine, while Kaymer earns his fourth straight cap as Clarke opted to add much-needed experience to his line-up.
Ironically, Knox, the son of an American father and a Scottish mother, is eligible for the USA side, a fact brought to the attention of home skipper Davis Love III last week.
The U.S-based Knox is a two-time victor on the U.S. PGA Tour this season, including at the Travelers Championship this month, and ranked No. 20 – the sixth highest position for a European. It would have been different if Knox was a veteran who brought more experience, but either player was going to be the sixth rookie on a team of 12.
“It’s going to be a very, very big task ahead of us”.
Advertisement
The talent that they all possess, I have no worries at all about the strength of that team.
