Russell Knox insists he’s not about to go and sulk in the corner if he doesn’t earn a Ryder Cup ‘wildcard’ pick next Tuesday.
The Scot is returning to competition at this week’s Barclays Championship New York’s Long Island for a first time since capturing the Travelers Championship.
However, with the cut-off for automatic European Team selection for those PGA Tour-based Europeans ending at last week’s Wyndham Championship Knox has finished one place outside of automatically qualifying for Darren Clarke’s team.
It’s meant Knox will need to be one of Clarke’s three captain’s picks if he’s to make his Ryder Cup debut later next month at Hazeltine.
Russell Knox says he’s not about to sulk in the corner if he’s not afforded a Ryder Cup wildcard pick.
But then if he’s not picked Knox will take it all on the chin.
“It’s important to me but it’s not the end of the world. If he chooses not to pick me, I’m not going to sulk in the corner,” he said
“He has every right not to pick me. He has every right to pick me and that’s the great thing with the captain’s picks as he can choose whoever he wants and I’ll be okay with that.
“I feel like I’ve done everything I could do. I played my best. I made the commitment to join the European Tour so I was eligible. I played well. So I guess I’ve made my case and hopefully it’s good enough.”
And ahead of this week’s opening event of the FedEx Cup Play-Off Series Knox spoke of the encouragement to make the European Team he’s received from Rory McIlroy.
For a third year in succession McIlroy has finished the leading European Team automatic qualifier.
“We all had dinner with Darren (Clarke) at the Players Championship back in May, myself and other potential rookies that could make the team and Rory McIlroy was there. also, to kind of give us a pep talk,” said Knox.
“That talk really inspired me to work harder and make the team.
“Hopefully, I’ve done enough, and would love to be there.”
And if Clarke does select Knox it will mean a record-equalling number of six rookies in the European Team and a number matching the number of rookies Colin Montgomerie had under his wings in 2010 at Celtic Manor.
But then Knox has no qualms being called a rookie despite being ranked well inside the top-20 on the World Ranking courtesy of two PGA Tour counting victories this year.
“The way I am looking at it is, I won’t feel like I’m a pick in a weird kind of way,” he said.
“Because if my points would have counted for my WGC late last year, I would have made the team comfortably.
“So if I’m lucky enough to get picked, I’ll feel like 10 people qualified and Darren picked two people, that’s the way I’m going to look at it to take pressure off myself.”
