As very widely expected, European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke has named Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington and Paul Lawrie as three of his five Hazeltine vice-captaincy appointments.

Clarke made the announcement following the completion of his second round in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

He had been due to announce his opening three vice-captains on Tuesday but then Harrington has been practicing at Royal Troon this week and is not contesting the Tour’s flagship event so he was unavailable until today.

“These three guys I’ve known for almost my entire career on Tour, three good friends, three guys who won’t be afraid to tell me, something what I don’t want to hear,” said Clarke.

“So I trust them implicitly and their opinions.”

Bjorn has been Chair of the Tournament Players Committee for the past nine years and is now widely rumoured to also get the 2018 European Team captaincy in Versailles.

Darren Clarke names Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington and Paul Lawrie as three of five Hazeltine vice-captains.

Bjorn has been observed in many discussions in recent months with Clarke.  He’s been on the 1997, 2002 and 2014 team while he’s been a winning Ryder Cup vice-captain in 2004, 2010 and 2012.

And Bjorn is already a hot favourite to replace Clarke as 2018 European Team Captain at Versailles in France.

Harrington, who has played in six Ryder Cup sides, was a vice-captain to Paul McGinley two years ago at Gleneagles.

Lawrie first played in the Ryder Cup in 1999 before muscling his way into Jose Maria Olazabal’s victorious 2012 ‘Miracle at Medinah’ side