Europe’s team to defend next month’s Ryder Cup will contain at least five new players, after the nine automatic qualifiers were decided with a week to spare.
Belgium’s Thomas Pieters needed to defend his Czech Masters title and Shane Lowry required a top-four finish in the Wyndham Championship to keep their hopes alive heading into the final qualifying event in Denmark. However, Pieters lost out by a single shot to the American Paul Peterson and Lowry was certain to finish down the field in North Carolina after a closing 67.
That meant that Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson, Chris Wood, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Andy Sullivan and Matt Fitzpatrick are guaranteed to be a European team that will be in searching for a fourth successive win in the biennial event.
Willett, Wood, Cabrera-Bello, Sullivan and Fitzpatrick are the rookies, although Willett won the Masters in April and Wood claimed the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May.
Clarke will name his three captain’s picks on August 30, with Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer strong favourites to get the nod, while recent PGA Tour winner Russell Knox and big-hitting Pieters are both understood to be the leading contenders for the final place.
Fitzpatrick has been in the qualifying places ever since winning his maiden European Tour title in the British Masters last October, the 21-year-old then claiming the Nordea Masters in June before a worrying dip in form. “It’s very exciting now,” he said after finishing fifth in Prague. “We can look forward to it and get my game in shape. I’ve probably been in the team for the longest period of time The qualifying period started a few weeks before I won the British Masters, and I’ve managed to stay there since then. I’m just delighted to be in the team.”