The Irish duo of Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry will stake their final Ryder Cup claims later this week in tournaments some 6,000 klms apart.
McDowell will tee-up in the Barclays Championship and the first event of the ultra-lucrative four-event FedEx Cup Play-Off Series on New York’s Long Island.
Lowry, despite some late confusion, will compete in the Made in Denmark and what is technically the final event for qualifying for the European Ryder Cup team.
However, the leading nine Hazeltine qualifiers, headed by Rory McIlroy, booked their place in Darren Clarke’s European Team last Sunday despite this week’s Denmark event the officially last qualifier.
Graeme McDowell clearly very pleased with himself after sharing 5th place in his first Wyndham Championship appearance.
Both McDowell and Lowry were well short of qualifying automatically despite McDowell’s great start to the Ryder Cup campaign in winning last November’s Myakoba Championship in Mexico.
Lowry looked a certainty to contest a first Ryder Cup after finishing joint second behind Dustin Johnson in June’s U.S. Open.
But both Irish went off the qualifying boil in recent weeks so much so they are hopeful a strong showing this week may lead to Clarke affording either a ‘wildcard’ pick ahead of his announcing his three picks next Tuesday 30th August.
McDowell burst back into some form posting a final Wyndham Championship 68 to share fifth place in Greensboro, North Carolina, and secure a best finish since a share of ninth in May’s Players Championship.
“I am very happy with my Wyndham effort and we talked earlier in the week about playing golf courses where you feel good and good for your confidence,” he said.
“So I went to Greensboro looking for that confidence and I found that.
“Of course, my number one priority was to limber up for the play-offs while the Ryder Cup is a shot in the dark for me, and that’s how I am looking at it.
“I know I am out of the picture but then it sets up later this week at Bethpage Park as still a potential chance for me to impress Darren if I were to win or finish top three, and on top of what I managed to do in Greensboro.
“So if that were to happen I may appear on Darren’s radar but then you have Luke (Donald) who finished second at the Wyndham and he’s clearly playing well again and you’ve got Russell Knox who is playing incredible and then there’s Shane who headed off to Denmark to show to Darren how much getting a captain’s pick would mean to him.
“So there are all sorts of scenarios unfolding.
“I am not trying to read to read Clarkey’s mind as I am just trying to do my thing and this week for me is all about the FedEx Cup Play-Offs.
“If the Ryder Cup were to get in the way so be it and it would be mission accomplished.”
Lowry had arrived indicating he would be travelling to Denmark but after a closing Wyndham 68 to finish on eight under par the Offlay golfer said he was scraping Denmark in favour of remaining in the States for the Barclays.
But as he cleaned out his Sedgefield Country Club locker it came to light he had in fact officially withdraw from the Barclays to play in Denmark.
As such, Lowry even though he had talked of taking the one-hour flight to JFK Airport was obliged to honour his commitment to compete in Denmark.
Lowry arrived back to Dublin yesterday morning (MON) and is heading to Denmark later his morning (TUES).
And while Lowry had long ago set his heart of representing Europe later this year, it was clear the pressure of continual talk about the Ryder Cup was
“I was pleased with my performance in Greensboro that included 20 birdies over the four days so that was good,” he said.
“But the Ryder Cup cloud has been following me around for the last few months and it hasn’t been all that nice, so whatever happens with regards to Darren’s picks I am looking forward to getting it behind me.
“Hopefully I can win in Denmark but I am now resigned to the fact that I am just going to try the best I can as I am sick of talking about the Ryder Cup in terms of what I need to do to make the team and so on.
“It’s the first time I have thought seriously about qualifying for the European Team but when it comes around again for Paris in 2018 I promised I will be better.”
