Luke Donald named his six European Ryder Cup wildcards and there was one glowing omission.
Donald began naming his wildcards, starting with Fleetwood, then Straka, then Rose, then Lowry. From there, the picks looked like they would be Adrian Meronk and then Ludvig Aberg.
Donald’s voice appeared to crack a little as he named Nicolai Hojgaard before European Masters champion Aberg coming out as the final pick.
It’s a hugely bold call for Donald, who realistically had 13 or 14 names for his 12 spots. US captain Zach Johnson boldly left out Keegan Bradley last week, but there were at least 15 or 16 names in genuine contention for Team USA.
The final spot on Team Europe, it appears, came down to just two men and not picking Adrian Meronk is a huge call from the European captain.
Adrian Meronk won the Italian Open earlier this year on the Ryder Cup course as well as last year’s Irish and Australian Opens, with the tall Pole currently sat at 51st in the world.
Meronk won his third DP World Tour title in less than 12 months at the Italian Open at Marco Simone earlier this summer
(Image credit: Getty Images)
He is the tenth-highest European in the world rankings and is higher ranked than Robert MacIntyre, Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg – all of whom are on the side.
Meronk looked like he’d be on the team all year. So, why didn’t he get one of the six picks?
Donald stressed that he wanted good form while announcing his picks, and Meronk has decent form – just look at the Race to Dubai rankings.
The 30-year-old is 3rd in the R2D standings, only behind Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.
Is he not a good fit for the course? That can hardly be argued as he won the Italian Open there just three months ago with a score of 13-under-par.
Leaving Meronk out is arguably the most controversial wildcard pick of all 12 including Zach Johnson’s for Team USA.
It appears that Donald just prefers Nicolai Hojgaard.
Nicolai Hojgaard won the 2021 Italian Open at Marco Simone
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Perhaps when you dig deep into the stats, Hojgaard’s numbers come out better than Meronk’s and the potential partnerships work better. Donald couldn’t overlook any of Fleetwood, Lowry, Rose, Straka or…
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