European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke has selected Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters as his three wild cards for next month’s defence of the trophy at Hazeltine.
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Knox is now seventh in the FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour and therefore in contention to win the overall title and $10m bonus at the Tour Championship, which finishes just five days before play gets under way at Hazeltine.
The three captain’s picks join the nine players who automatically qualified for the squad, which is comprised of six old hands and six Ryder Cup rookies.
As the sixth-highest placed European in the world rankings with two PGA Tour wins – including a massive WGC Champions event in China that earned him no qualifying points as he wasn’t a European Tour member yet in November – he had good reason to feel confident.
Pieters has had a great run of late, winning the Made in Denmark last week, finishing second at the D+D REAL Czech Masters, and fourth at the Olympics.
Dredge held a one-shot advantage at the end of his third round, but the Welshman paid the price for a double-bogey at the second and needed a long birdie putt at the last to take second place on his own. “I’m sure we are going to see some friends and names we recognise”.
The 30-year-old from Inverness missed out on selection as a wildcard for Darren Clarke’s European team to take on the U.S. at Hazeltine at the end of next month with the Northern Irishman opting instead to take Belgium’s Thomas Pieters in a straight choice between rookies.
The selection means that Scotland’s Russell Knox will have no place on the team. “Having to phone Russell yesterday and give him the information was one of the toughest phone calls I’ve had to make”.
The Ryder Cup is set to begin on the 27 of September to the 2 of October at the Hazeltine golf course in Minnesota. 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.
“Myself and Darren are very close and I was very relieved and thrilled to get the pick”. No other player has won more during that span.
“The rookies on our team are experienced at playing over in the States”, he said. There’s a lot of experience there and I look at a lot of the players’ characters and I think they can take it, they can take a fight and a bit of stick. “I have to respect the decision he made and get on with it”.
” I know Darren really well”, Love said after his eight automatic qualifiers were confirmed on Sunday as Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson.
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That means there will be no “fear factor” in facing such players at Hazeltine, but the three-time European Tour victor added: “It’s going to be a matter of dealing with the crowds I think”.
