Belgian rookie Thomas Pieters and experienced duo Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer were named by Europe captain Darren Clarke as wild-card picks yesterday to complete his Ryder Cup team.
Advertisement
Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer – who finished joint sixth at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort – have always been favourites to secure two of the wild cards as Clarke looks for experience alongside the five rookies among the nine automatic qualifiers.
The 43-year-old’s last victory came in Indonesia in April 2015, but he was joint-second behind Willett at Augusta National and has recorded four other top-15 finishes from a limited schedule.
It was Pieters, the 24-year-old from Antwerp, who seized the moment with a rampaging run for the line which came to an ultimately triumphant finale last Sunday when he birdied his final three holes to win the Made in Denmark event and convince Clarke that he was the man of the moment and a star of the future.
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. Clarke was in Denmark to see Pieters’ third win in the past year, and made sure he was grouped with him for the opening two rounds. And then on top of that he finished in the manner he started in to win the tournament.
The Inverness exile is now focussing his energies on an all out assault on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup over the next three weeks.
“He then went through a bit of a lull, but made his case that he could get in this team, and then made that late run, finishing fourth at the Olympics, finishing second in the Czech Republic and then absolutely played unbelievable golf to win in Denmark”. I am really glad for Thomas Pieters too – I played with him last week and was really impressed.
Clarke said Luke Donald – another former No. 1 and a four-time Ryder Cup victor – and Graeme McDowell would also have been in contention for a pick if their form had been better. “(The American) team is shaping up very strongly, but my players are world class in their own right.
Five of the nine automatic qualifiers were rookies, and Donald, a former world No. 1, would likely round out a veteran threesome of wildcard selections that also includes Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer.
Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer were “very obvious” choices as two of the captain’s picks, Clarke said after making the announcement at the European Tour’s headquarters at Wentworth.
“To get it down to those three has certainly been very hard”, said Clarke. “He’s played unbelievably well during the qualification period”.
Pieters is one of six rookies and no previous European team has won in the United States with such a callow line-up. “It’s a team that’s going to go there and do everything we possibly can to bring that trophy back home again”.
Advertisement
“He’s very long off the tee and has a great short game so I think maybe the captain has the option of playing him in many different formats with many different players”.
