Europe Ryder Cup Team Selections

The Ryder Cup bandwagon has started to roll.

Over the last few days, the golf media has been full of photos of both teams – USA and Europe – getting to know this year’s venue and bonding together like one big happy family.

For the current holders the trip over during the off-season seems a mightily logical move. Having won the last six Cups held in Europe, the ‘home’ team would seem to have a tremendous advantage, something brought home to the Americans during the 17.5-10.5 defeat at Le Golf National in 2018. Given then-rookie Justin Thomas was the only player to take part in the French Open two months before the clash, and that he ended up as top scorer (four points from five), the defending champions have clearly taken heed.

With the golf landscape becoming increasingly blurred (isn’t this event now really just about your birthplace rather than any allegiance?)  it may be that the American-style Marco Simone track becomes no barrier to the visitors, but they are taking no chances.

Before the 19-9 thrashing of their rivals, the American team took in a recce of Whistling Straits, because (according to Davis Love), “They had us over a barrel in Paris because we didn’t have enough practice rounds.” 

This time, Zach Johnson and his crew flew over to encourage team togetherness and, naturally, gain information about the track.

“The common sentiment that I heard on the golf course was they really liked it, which is awesome,” Johnson said.“The rough was very thick. That was the other nugget that we talked about a lot.”

As for the European side, they arranged their visit two days later, only three days before the start of the DPWT’s flagship event – the BMW PGA at Wentworth.

All 12 Ryder Cups picks made the trip to Rome as against nine of Johnson’s army (three had family arrangements at the time) and all made the trip back to play at the Virginia Water track this week. Against that, only two-time defending champion Max Homa and Justin Thomas (he, again) play at the bizarrely-scheduled Fortinet Championship, a Fall event for those ‘fallen’ unless you are in the top 70, in which case come along anyway.

For JT, this is possibly one of the most crucial weeks of the past year. Despite finishing in the top eight places in his last three starts at Silverado, the last outing was 2019, and he surely wasn’t expecting to either prove his well-being or start to gain FedEx points this early in the non-wrap-around-season.

Perhaps the 30-year-old will be inspired by being picked as a wild-card, in similar fashion to Shane Lowry, who had his highest finish, and second most valuable OWGR points gain, at the Irish Open last week.

“I feel like this season has been a season where I’ve not put all parts of my game together during tournament play,” Lowry said after his third place at the K-Club.” I feel like I go out some weeks and I’m driving the ball really well. Other weeks, I’m putting well. Other weeks, my iron play is good. And I just feel it hasn’t all come together.”

And it’s the 2019 Open champion that has been the subject of much debate over the past week, although his captain has no doubts.

“He’s a big-time player who steps up in the moments,” Donald said of the Irishman. “We saw that two years ago at Whistling Straits. He has great passion for the Ryder Cup. It was great to see his commitment when he went to Prague a couple of weeks ago, although he didn’t play his best there. He struggled on the greens. The next two weeks are important for him. He’ll feel comfortable in Ireland and at Wentworth. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t do well in those events.”

“Shane is a big-time player,” he confirmed. “He turns up in those moments. And we saw his passion at Whistling Straits two years ago. Shane is great in the team room.”

For captain Luke Donald, much of the hard work was done when Roberyt Macintyre landed a place in sixth on the qualifying lists – the final automatic place and avoiding any real problems in his wild-card selection.

Bob has never made any secret of his desire to be at the biggest of events, proving his mettle with a pair of top-10 finishes at both Portrush and Royal St George’s as well as a 12th place at Augusta. Two wins on the DP World Tour include beating Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick at the 2022 Italian Open, something that must have been influential should Donald have had to make a decision.

“It means everything,” MacIntyre told BBC Scotland, after finishing an unlucky runner-up at the Scottish Open. “It’s the reason I play golf at this level. It’s the reason I work most days, to achieve dreams like this. There were days playing as a kid with pals when you’d say ‘this putt is to win The Open or the Ryder Cup’. But, when you come from a small town, you never see people do it.”

So to the captain’s picks.

Without the experience of a McDowell, Westwood, Garcia or Poulter, the former world number one turned to Justin Rose to settle the nerves of the rookies.

Appearing in his sixth Ryder Cup, the 43-year-old brings in the knowledge of 23 Ryder Cup matches, contributing 14 points to the various teams, matching the figure Rory McIlroy has in the bag. Whilst these two are streets ahead of their team-mates in terms of experience, it will surely be certain future captain Rose, that is asked to perform the role of dressing-room influencer.

After winning for the first time in four years at Bay Hill, the 2013 US Open champion went on to finish sixth at The Players, ninth at the USPGA and fourth at The Belfry – plenty enough to get a nod.

Alongside Rose, Austrian Sepp Straka got the nod after winning the John Deere and making three of four cuts in majors, the best of which was seventh at the USPGA and an impressive runner-up to Brian Harman at Hoylake. Okay, Straka is, by his own admission, “100% Austrian and 100% American,” and it’s tough to get by that full US accent, but the (now) world number 23 deserves the call, being the seventh highest-ranked European in the OWGR.

And so it came to four. Lowry still causes a touch of controversy, but he appears to have justified his selection, even if he may have to do better than the one win and two losses on debut.

Yannik Paul was never really in the hunt after failing to move forwards quickly enough after Mallorca last year, whilst Victor Perez and Adrian Otaugui surely needed a couple of serious finishes to boot Bob off the map.

Instead it was down to three – Nicolai Hojgaard, Adrian Meronk and Ludvig Aberg, a high-class college player that could be anything.

For me, the selection of the first two was easily justified. The Dane had proven more consistent than his twin, Rasmus, over the past 12 months, playing well and winning 3.5 points at the Hero Cup, a team event at the beginning of the year. Since then, the 22-year-old has finished fifth at the Italian Open and impressed all when sixth in Scotland, 23rd at The Open, third in Prague and fifth at Crans, the last two when clearly under the cosh to perform in front of Donald. Beside that, his victory on the Marco Simone track in 2021 came via a one-shot defeat of Tommy Fleetwood and he has shown an ability to play in all regions – running up at the Corales and a recent top-15 at the Wyndham.

It helps that Nicolai is one of the best drivers on the tour and has a high ranking in greens found and putting – it’s gimme stuff.

Alongside Fleetwood in second place at the 2021 Italian Open was Adrian Meronk, learning from that experience to win his own Italian trophy in May this year.

Ranked 29 places above Hojgaard in the OWGR, the Pole went on to be 40th at Oak Hill, 23rd at Hoylake, fifth in Holland, third at the BMW International, 15th at The Belfry and, most recently, 13th at Crans, when under the most intense pressure. Again, like Hojgaard, Meronk’s game is tailormade for this year’s host track, a combination of solid driving and green-finding.

After getting the call that he wasn’t in, it was no surprise that he was “shocked, sad and angry,” commenting that he “was expecting a call because they told me they were going to call regardless and I was in quite a good mood to be honest. I was on the train coming from Switzerland. I’d had a nice finish, and I was in shock.”

It’s a testament to Meronk’s mental state that he was able to finish 23rd at this week’s Irish Open, a defence of the crown he had won by three shots in May last year, leaving Lowry and Macintyre trailing behind. Did I mention his five shot victory at the Australian Open in December – that’s five from Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee? Ah well, it was clearly not good enough.

And that brings us neatly to Ludvig Aberg, the new darling of the golf media.

There is really little to say about what the 23-year-old has already done in a relatively short time, but he’s turned down a multi-million dollar offer from LIV, been the world number one ranked amateur, led the Dubai Desert Classic on an invitation, made six consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour culminating in a top four finish at the John Deere, tied Sam Burns,Nicolai Hojgaard and pals for 14th at Sedgefield, and has recently run up a fourth place at the Czech Masters before a come-from-behind win (against Fitzpatrick) at Crans.

No one can deny that’s impressive, but does it deserve a Ryder Cup call-up after just nine starts as a pro.

Donald has no doubts that the 23-year-old Swede is here to stay.

“Ludvig is a generational player, he’ll be around a long time and do amazing things,” Donald said. “If he didn’t make this one he’d be around for the next eight Ryder Cups, that’s how good I think he is. If you look at his stats this year, he’d be the No. 1 driver in the world ahead of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler – that’s pretty high standards.”

And yet, I can’t help thinking this is too early. I’m not worried if I’m wrong, it makes him a freak of nature, a golf superstar. However, the mind wanders back to Martin Kaymer and Rhys Davies,  both of whom were asked along to the 2008 and 2010 Ryder Cups to gain experience.

The much-missed Welshman had earlier that year beaten Louis Oosthuizen in a head-to-head in Morocco, before making cuts at the US Open and USPGA, finishing with a runner-up at Celtic Manor (ironically splitting McDowell and Donald). Even being in the world’s top-50 meant little as captain Colin Montgomorie invited him along for the ride.

Nick Faldo did a similar thing with Kaymer after the German had won in Abu Dhabi, from Westwood and Henrik Stenson, and his home BMW International. Of course, Kaymer went on to be world number one, win the USPGA and US Open and be a pivotal part of the Miracle of Medinah, the European comeback of 2012.

Kaymer reflected a couple of years later when qualifying for Celtic Manor

“Looking back, I think it was good that I didn’t make it because I think it would have been a little too early for me. But now I know that I’m ready to play.”

And that, there, is what should have happened.

Donald believes that the Swedish youngster will be around for a long while, in hos words for “the next eight Ryder Cups.” Meronk won’t be.

It would have been no hardship to offer Aberg a slot in the van for the walk around the Marco Simone. Only two players on the list have played the course in all three years – Hojgaard and Meronk.

Again, rather like Zach Johnson’s nod to JT, this could be genius. It could also make him look very silly indeed.