It means there is no place for Scotland’s world No20 Russell Knox, who finished 10th in qualifying, 0.04 points ahead of Pieters.
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EUROPEAN captain Darren Clarke faces arguably the most hard decision of his career when he must decide between form and experience in naming his three Ryder Cup wild cards. Knox is not only ranked higher in the world rankings, 20th vs Pieter’s 41st, but has two wins on the PGA Tour, the Travelers Championship a couple of weeks ago and the WGC-HSBC Champions last November during the wrap-around portion of the season.
Pieters is in red-hot form after winning the Made In Denmark event on Sunday, finishing second at the preceding Czech Masters and claiming fourth place at this month’s Rio Olympics.
Westwood, 43, and Clarke, 48, have been close friends for years, but this pick was not nepotism – Westwood tied for second at the Masters, finished T-15 at the BMW PGA and was in the penultimate group at the U.S. Open.
Team captain Darren Clarke was faced with a conundrum for Europe; did he add yet more inexperience to a side which already included five rookies, or rely on those whose past exploits entitled them to be part of the conversation? “So I know how much I was hurting at that stage”.
” It’s certainly motivated me for the next three weeks, that’s for sure”, said the 31-year-old Florida-based Scot. It was probably one of the toughest calls I’ve had to make.
Although the two-time major champion hasn’t tasted victory worldwide since a wire-to-wire win at the 2014 US Open, his experience, form and reliability will lead to him having a pivotal role in Europe’s tournament defence.
Clarke was looking to balance out the team with experienced wild-card picks, putting Luke Donald – another former No. 1 and a four-time Ryder Cup victor – in contention to join Westwood and Donald.
Clarke selected Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters to complete the European line-up to take on the United States in Minnesota next month.
“Last week I played with Thomas Pieters and Thomas knew why I was playing with him and played unbelievable and shot 62 and, on top of that, won the tournament”, Clarke added before addressing the challenge of defeating the US for the fourth time in a row when the Ryder Cup matches resume in Minnesota on September 30.
“Let’s be honest, it came down to Thomas Pieters or me”.
“The last pick was very hard”.
Europe are out to win the Ryder Cup for the ninth time in 11 editions when the competition starts at Hazeltine National Golf Club on September 30 and Clarke said he was confident his team would thrive.
“I’ve always been a big Thomas Pieters fan from when I first witnessed how he hits the golf ball”.
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“I feel like I deserve to be there and should be playing but I’m not, so I have to respect the decision that’s been made”.
