TPC Boston, MA ....
There would seem to be two Spainish-born golfers heading to the Ryder Cup later next month and one of those will not be Masters Champion, Sergio Garcia.
Jon Rahm earned his place in a maiden Ryder Cup by automatically qualifying for Thomas Bjorn’s European Team.
Two others, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Garcia, are figthing to win Bjorn’s approval when the Dane confirms the eventual 12-man make-up of his team in annoucning his four ‘wildcard’ picks at 2pm (BST) on 5th September.
Three of those will be Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Henrik Stenson. The fourth is a choice of Cabrera-Bello and/or Garcia.
Cabrera-Bello let slip qualifying automatically will a disappointing showing in last week’s Northern Trust and the final qualifying event off the European Team ‘World’ points table to remain in ninth place overall and one place shy of qualifying.
And Cabrera-Bello has elected not to boost his chances of a second straight Ryder Cup by electing not to travel to Denmark for the final qualifying event and instead remain in the US to compete in Friday’s starting Dell Technologies Championship near Boston.
Sergio Garcia could be staring at missing a Ryder Cup for only a second time in 19-years.
“I chose not to go to Denmark and focus on improving my FedEx Cup ranking (59th),” he said.
“All I can do is my best this week and hope that will help my cause. Really, it is out of my hands now and hopefully given how well I played in my first Ryder Cup two years ag0, and how well I have been playing the last two years will help.”
Cabrera-Bello had been paired with Garcia to be undefeatded in three matches in the losing 2016 European Ryder Cup team and while Cabrera-Bello has been steady, Garcia has performed poorly since missing the cut in the defence of The Masters.
In fact, Garcia then missed the cut in next two events post Augusta National while he also sat out the weekend rounds in four events in succession, including the US Open and the Open Championship, from mid-May to the end of July while last fortnight he fell three places shy of being among the top-125 to qualify for the ‘Play-Off Series’.
If Garcia was to be overlooked by Bjorn it will be the first time in 19-years, and having played in every Ryder Cup since 1999 and with the exception of 2010, he has not competed.
“There have been some changes that I’ve had to get used to and I lost a little bit of confidence but I’ve been working hard and trying to do everything I can to get my game in the best shape possible to, if Thomas considers it, be part of the team and help out in any way I can.
“I’ve spoken to Thomas over the past couple of months. He obviously knows what I bring to the team as a player – but also as a person. I think he appreciates that and I think it’s a matter of if he feels what I bring to the team is good enough.
“Although he’d love me to be at 100% with my game, he knows that even if my game is not 100%, I can bring other things to my teammates that might help the team overall.”
