Thomas Pieters is involved in a late tussle with Luke Donald for the last place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team, with Darren Clarke to confirm his selection at Tuesday lunchtime.
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Clarke, with five debutants on his team already as automatic qualifiers, did draw on some further experience as he revealed his three wildcards to take on Davis Love III’s U.S. outfit, naming Lee Westwood for his tenth Ryder Cup appearance and two-time major champion Martin Kaymer.
Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson, Chris Wood, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Andy Sullivan and Matt Fitzpatrick qualified automatically.
Westwood added: “As Darren said, he knows what I can do in the Ryder Cup and what I can bring, so it was great to get the call and get a pick”.
Why Donald? Well, he has played on four winning teams, had a 100 per cent record in foursomes until the 2012 match at Medinah and could probably be paired with every other player in the team.
“Last week I played with him (Pieters) as I have many times over the qualification period”.
That win in Denmark was his third on the European Tour over the past year, and part of a rich vein of August form in which he also finished second in the Czech Masters and fourth in the Olympics.
“Myself and Darren are very close and I was very relieved and thrilled to get the pick”.
Clarke intentionally was paired with Pieters at last week’s Made in Denmark event, and in the opening round, the big-hitting, 24-year-old Belgian fired a 62 alongside his future captain.
Twice major victor Kaymer of Germany has featured in the last three Ryder Cups, all won by Europe.
Pieters, the world number 41, will be only the second Belgian after Nicolas Colsaerts to play in the Ryder Cup.
“Then it came down to Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters and that has been an incredibly hard decision; I haven’t slept an bad lot about it”.
As expected, Westwood’s run of form over the spring was enough for him to be selected by long-time friend Clarke. It is unusual to have five rookies among the nine automatic qualifiers and, fantastic though they all are, a rookie is a rookie, and that makes it even trickier to hand a wild card to another Ryder Cup debutant.
“I’m going to disappoint you, but not really”, he said”. Describing that as one of the most impressive rounds he’d ever seen, Clarke’s final decision was clearly influenced by Pieters’ audition of sorts in Denmark.
“He made the game look ridiculously easy”.
Pieters’ inclusion in the team means that half of the 12-man team will be rookies.
And you don’t get much more experienced than Westwood – making his 10th consecutive appearance at the biennial event – and two-time major victor Kaymer.
“It’s been a little bit insane”, Pieters said.
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USA captain Davis Love III will reveal three of his four picks on September 11, and will make his final selection on September 25.
