Harrington names picks as Team Europe confirmed for Ryder Cup
European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has named Shane Lowry among his three captain’s picks for this year’s contest, as Justin Rose missed out on a place in the team.
Harrington selected fellow Irishman Lowry, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter to complete his side heading to Whistling Straits later this month, while Rose – who finished tied-sixth at the BMW PGA Championship after a bogey-free 65 and has played in five of the last six Ryder Cups – was left out of the European line-up.
Lowry was knocked out of automatic qualification places when Bernd Wiesberger finished tied-20th at Wentworth, lifting the Austrian into the final spot on the European Points List and pushing Rory McIlroy over to the World Points List.
The Offaly native went into the final round in a share of seventh and required a top-eight finish to replace Lee Westwood in the World Points List, although stuttered to a final-round 71 to leave him in tied-17th and requiring a captain’s pick.
Harrington’s three selections will join McIlroy, Wiesberger, Westwood, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland in the European side looking to retain their trophy, three years on from the 17.5-10.5 victory over Team USA in Paris.
Garcia will make his tenth Ryder Cup appearance and his second in a row as a captain’s pick, having won three of his four matches to become Europe’s record points scorer during their 2018 victory at Le Golf National.
The 41-year-old was one of only three European players to make it through the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship, having won the Sanderson Farms Championship earlier the campaign, with the Spaniard arriving at East Lake off the back of a tied-sixth finish at the BMW Championship.
Poulter also secured a pick after a solid summer on the PGA Tour, where he claimed a share of third at the Charles Schwab Challenge and added a top-10 at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, while the Englishman also enjoyed a top-four finish at the abrdn Scottish Open.
The Ryder Cup stalwart acted as a vice-captain for Darren Clarke during the 2016 loss on American soil but has appeared in each of Europe’s last four winning teams, top-scoring in the 2012 ‘Miracle at Medinah’ and more recently defeating the-then world No 1 Dustin Johnson in the 2018 singles.
Who will win the Ryder Cup? We will find out when the action begins in Wisconsin on September 24th.
