Experience and youth. There has to be everything in a team, also in a Ryder Cup. Luke Donald, European captain, completed his team yesterday by revealing the six invitations he had. There were safe bets and some surprises.
Donald began by revealing the name of the Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who was in all the pools. "He has experience, which is important, but he is a ball-hitting machine and he is versatile," highlighted the captain.
Austrian Sepp Straka was Donald's second choice. It will be his first appearance in a Ryder Cup but his victory in the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour and his second place in the last British endorse him and his choice was not surprising either.
The veteran of the European team will be Justin Rose, 43, who will play his sixth Ryder. Rose seemed like another of Donald's safe picks given his extensive experience and good form. After him, the Irish Shane Lowry received the fourth invitation. Lowry was very touched after debuting in the Ryder of Whistling Straits with the resounding defeat against the United States and he assured that he wanted to change that taste in his mouth.
Luke Donald's last two picks went to two other rookies (in total there will be four on the European team counting MacIntyre). The first chosen one, the most difficult to guess, was Nicolai Hojgaard. The Dane has won the race against other players such as Adrian Meronk, Yannick Paul or Pablo Larrazábal.
The last election was for the Swede Ludvig Aberg. The former number one in the amateur world and a phenomenon in university golf, has earned his share of participation in the event, with the cherry on top of his victory on Sunday in Crans-Montana, which finally cleared up all of Donald's doubts.
It should be remembered that Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Robert MacIntyre had already qualified automatically, through the European list of points; and Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick, via the world list.
The 2023 Ryder Cup will be held from September 29 to October 1 at Marco Simone Golf
Europe will face the always fearsome American team, which had already been defined a few weeks ago after captain Zach Johnson announced his six choices: Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. These six players joined those who had automatically qualified: Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele.
