Darren Clarke has chosen Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters as his three wildcards to complete Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
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Darren Clarke will have six rookies on his European side to defend the Ryder Cup on American soil next month after naming Belgium’s Thomas Pieters as one of his three captain’s picks on Tuesday, writes Simon Lewis.
Russell Knox misses out despite being the highest-ranked European of the non-qualifiers, rising to world No 20 following his win at the Travelers Championship earlier this month.
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. “He played unbelievable, shot 62 and, on top of that, won the tournament”. Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald had an argument with their experience to join that, but they would admit that they have not been on top of their game.
“The last choice was very hard”. Russell has played unbelievably well over the qualification period.
“So it came down to Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters”.
“As we teed off on Thursday morning Thomas knew exactly why I was playing with him”.
“He didn’t hole anything (for the 62)”.
“He didn’t hole anything for it. Normally when someone shoots a really low number, they hole a couple of 30 footers or they chip it in”. But he made the game look ridiculously easy.
And his disappointment was compounded when Clarke chose the world number 41 Pieters as his final wildcard.
Five of the nine automatic selections, Danny Willett, Chris Wood, Andy Sullivan, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Matt Fitzpatrick, are Ryder Cup rookies so Clarke may decide to balance his 12-man team by going for experience with his wildcards.
“The Ryder Cup means so much to him and I think he’s just making sure he can play the rest of the FedEx and also make sure he’s fit for the Ryder Cup”. This is his 10th one. Anything he says, everybody sits up and listens.
“He got a lot of guys he wanted and has the luxury of picking players who are hot and veterans”.
This is the first time since 2010 that the European team hasn’t featured a Scottish player.
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“It’s going to be a monumental task but I’ve got full confidence in the team we’re going to take, ” Clarke added.
