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.
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The world number 20 finished 10 in qualifying ahead by 0.04 from Belgian Pieters.
Pieters would have been a lock, if not for the fact that out of the nine players who have qualified automatically for the team, five are Ryder Cup rookies.
Kaymer, 31, has not lifted a trophy since claiming his second major title at the 2014 US Open, but delivered six top-10 finishes in his last 12 events.
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 was fourth in the Olympics and second in the defence of his Czech Masters title last week to force his name into the frame for one of European captain Clarke’s three wild cards.
Clarke confirmed at the event, that the final wildcard was down to a battle between Pieters and Scotland’s Russell Knox.
“If I’d played there and played well I might have been in exactly the same position as Thomas, but it’s impossible to say what would have happened had I done this or not”, he added. “He played unbelievable, shot 62 and, on top of that, won the tournament”.
“The last one was very hard; I’m not going to sit here and say otherwise and I had a few different people in my mind”.
Knox said: “It’s certainly motivated me for the next three weeks, that’s for sure”. It is the first time that Irish golf has only had one representative on the European team since coincidentally Clarke’s debut, in 1997, under the late Seve Ballesteros at Valderrama.
Clarke said Luke Donald – another former No. 1 and a four-time Ryder Cup victor – and Graeme McDowell would also have been in contention to join Westwood and Kaymer, if their form was better. “(The American) team is shaping up very strongly, but my players are world class in their own right. “Having to call Russell and tell him the decision was one of the toughest phone calls I’ve ever had to make”. Russell has played unbelievably well over the qualification period.
Darren set up a WhatsApp for him and the vice-captains to share our opinions – as well as some more light-hearted exchanges – two or three weeks ago and it has been active virtually 24/7 every since.
During the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf, I was so impressed with Thomas Pieters’ ball-striking at the practice range, I picked him up as my dark horse.
“The U.S. side is going to be very strong but we are equally as strong”.
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“And now to finalise the team of 12 guys who are going to Hazeltine to try and bring this attractive trophy back home with us”.
