Wild cards are so named because, in truth, some calls are made from left field. Luke Donald stuck mainly to the tried and trusted in his six captain’s picks and, at the same time, showed a measure of wildness – at odds with his own conservative game – in placing confidence in youth in completing Europe’s team for the Ryder Cup match against holders USA at Marco Simeone Golf Club in Rome on September 29th to October 1st.
Donald’s hardest call was in deciding there was no place for Adrian Meronk, who unquestionably will feel hard done by.
The Pole, who defends his Horizon Irish Open title at The K Club this week, was put into cold storage by Donald who decided that Ludvig Aberg – an undoubted future superstar if not yet there – deserved to be fast-tracked into his team. So, too, Nicolai Hojgaard.
Aberg, a former world number one amateur, is 23. Hojgaard, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, including the 2021 Italian Open at Marco Simeone, is 22.
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Meronk is ranked 51st in the world rankings but will be an onlooker as Aberg – ranked 1,964th in the world back in January when he played in the Dubai Desert Classic (as an amateur) but who, since turning professional in June, has jumped to 90th following his breakthrough win in the Omega European Masters – got the call. Hojgaard is ranked 78th in the world.
“I made a lot of calls, about 25 in general,” remarked Donald of how wide he had spread his net before determining his picks and of how many disappointed players were at the end of phones, not just Meronk. “I am very happy with Nicolai. I am very happy with Ludvig. I’m very happy with the six picks to be honest. Those are tough decisions and that comes with every Ryder Cup, there is always going to be some people to miss out.”
Those words of explanation from Donald would demonstrate a tough interior, and you don’t get to world number one without inner resolve, to go with his outwardly genial nature.
And the phrasing by Donald would also indicate that Shane Lowry – another of his six picks – was always set to get a positive call, even there has been some disappointing performances, most notably in missing the cut at the 151st Open and then again in the Czech Masters which he added to his schedule after failing to make the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour.
Lowry was ranked 21st in the world at the start of the year and heads into this week’s Irish Open at 37th, and without a top-10 finish since his tied-5th placed in the Honda Classic back in February.
“I feel like he’s a big-time player. He steps up in the moments,” said Donald of Lowry, adding: “We saw that even two years ago at Whistling Straits, just the passion he had for [the Ryder Cup]. It was great to see him commitment to fly to Prague and play. I know he didn’t play his best, the course conditions, the greens, were a little bit slow that week and he struggled on them. Again, he is a big-time player ... we know he’s a big-time player, won an Open Championship (2019), WGCs, won at Wentworth, the list goes on and on. The big occasions against the very best players, he turns up in those moments.
“We’ve got two important weeks for him, playing in Ireland and Wentworth, two places he feels very comfortable and it wouldn’t surprise me if he is up there having a good chance in those two events,” said Donald.
Lowry, indeed, is one of the headline acts in the Irish Open in Straffan and most likely had a heads-up that he was going to be on the plane as he opted to skip the European Masters to take a family break in Kerry ahead of that busy stretch that takes in The K Club, Wentworth and now officially Marco Simeone.
“We don’t get to do it that often, play team golf, and I grew up in a family of team sports and it’s what I love. You know, the experience that I had at Whistling Straits, even though we got beaten quite heavily was creditable and something that I’ll remember forever,” said Lowry, adding:
“I’m looking forward to a home Ryder Cup and looking forward to creating more memories. A lot of my big, big goals this year were getting to Rome and trying to win that Ryder Cup back, and everything over these next few weeks is going to be put into doing that and hopefully we can come out on top.”
Lowry is one of three members of Donald’s Ryder Cup team playing at The K Club, along with automatic team qualifiers Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton.
