European captain Darren Clarke has chosen Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters as his three wild cards for the Ryder Cup match against the USA at Hazeltine from September 30th-October 2nd. Clarke confirmed his picks at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at Wentworth.
There was no joy for Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry while England's Luke Donald and Scotland's Russell Knox were others under consideration. 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.
Europe are the defending champions, having won under Ireland's Paul McGinley at Gleneagles two years ago, and will be going for a fourth straight win over the Americans. The last time the USA prevailed was in 2008 at Valhalla.
Westwood and Kaymer have long been touted as shoo-ins but Belgium's long-hitting Pieters is the sixth rookie in this year's time, joining fellow first-timers. Andy Sullivan (England), US Masters champion Danny Willett (England), Matt Fitzpatrick (England), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spain) and Chris Wood (England).
The 24-year-old Pieters demonstrated exquisite timing in every respect, winning the Made in Denmark tournament on the European Tour on Sunday, putting pressure on Clarke to pick him. The Belgian said in the immediate aftermath of the win: Darren Clarke has got plenty of good players to pick from, so if he doesn't pick me, then so be it; I'll work my butt off to get there in the next one. But I've done all I can now and I'm just really pleased with this win to be honest."
At 6ft 5in, he is prodigiously long off the tee, but he also has a very tidy short game. His best result in a major is 30th, which he achieved at the British Open this year.
Clarke said of his wild cards: “To get it down to those three has certainly be very difficult. As I’ve spoken all along with the qualification process and how the team was shaping up, I was going to look towards experience and in Lee (Westwood) and Martin (Kaymer) I have two former world number ones.
“With Lee and Martin they were two pretty obvious choices for me. The last one was very difficult, I’m not going to sit here and say otherwise. I had a few different people in my mind, like Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald.
“Then it came down to the choice between Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters. That was an incredibly difficult decision and I have not slept an awful lot; having to phone Russell was one of the toughest phone calls I have ever had to make.”
Pieters played with Clarke in Denmark last week. The European captain explained: “Last week I played with him as I have done many times on the qualification period. When we teed off on Thursday morning, Thomas knew exactly why I was playing with him. There were a few other contenders I was thinking about as well but Thomas went out and shot one of the finest 62s I have ever witnessed, and made it look very easy.”
Pieters speaking by video link had this to say about his selection. “I had been playing well for a while but I guess the results were not there [before this weekend]. What do you feel you will bring to Darren’s team, Pieters is asked? “Points. It’s pretty cool to be honest. I just can’t wait to get on that plane and be with the team the whole week.”
