Philadelphia, PA …
Three of Thomas Bjorn’s three ‘wildcard’ picks to be confirmed at 2pm Wednesday (UK time) for the Ryder Cup later this month seem crystal clear – Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Henrik Stenson.
The fourth is clearly not!
Bjorn is staring at a selection pool for a fourth ‘wildcard’ pick of some four players. Two of them are Spaniards in Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Sergio Garcia and there is Belgium’s Thomas Pieters who distinguished himself so well as a ‘wildcard’ pick in the losing 2016 European Team.
Others have been suggesting England’s Matthew Wallace and a three-time winner in 15 European Tour events this year but with five rookies on the European Team already Bjorn has to heed Justin Rose’s advice and not fall into the trap of taking six rookies to France.
If Bjorn plays fair the fourth pick should go to Cabrera-Bello who had missed out by one spot in qualifying automatically for his team and with a record also of being undefeated in the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello at 2016 Ryder Cup – undefeated at Hazeltine.
As well, Cabrera-Bello is in good form having momentarily moved into the lead in Monday’s concluding Tour event in Boston while the Dubai-based Spaniard has also recorded two top-5s on the Ryder Cup host Le National course.
“I would like to think that my experience, and also my record, from Hazeltine will help me prepare as I am not a rookie and I know what the Ryder Cup is all about,” said Cabrera-Bello when competing in last fortnight’s Northern Trust.
“I was a very good player when I got to Hazeltine in 2016 and I feel I am as good as a players two years on.
“And I know the Le National course very well having played many French Open’s there. It’s a fantastic golf course and very much suits my game.”
However there seems to be a shift towards Garcia that would be grossly unfair to Cabrera-Bello and with last year’s Masters champion having enjoyed a wretched season including having missed the cut in eight of 11 events since sitting out the weekend rounds in the defence of his Masters title.
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In Garcia’s favour is that he has contested every Ryder Cup since making his debut in 1999 and that includes being a member of five victorious European Teams.
Against Garcia is a decision to not commit himself to striving to qualify via the final event, and that was not to travel to Denmark to tee-up in the Made in Denmark.
Garcia has not played anywhere since the Wyndham Championship and where he finished 128th on the FedEx Cup standing and fail to qualify for the Play-Off Series.
It makes Bjorn’s decision all that more difficult than rival Jim Furyk who said Tuesday night here in Philadelphia that the efforts of Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods had made his own ‘wildcard’ selection task ‘all that more easy’.
“I’m pretty much there in my head in how I see this team being and how I want to try and mix and match everyone. But there’s still one little doubt in my head,” said Bjorn.
All will be revealed at 2pm UK time Wednesday.
