Is the Ryder Cup an old boys club? Maybe not

THOMAS Bjorn’s captain’s wild card picks for this year’s European Ryder Cup team were rather predictable and certainly didn’t surprise me, but they have sparked a lot of debate, with many of the opinion that it’s now becoming an “old boys’ club” whereby the captain picks his buddies and former team mates rather than those who are in form.

You can look at it from both sides and while I feel for the likes of Matt Wallace, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Thomas Pieters, I can fully understand why Bjorn went for Poulter, Garcia, Stenson and Casey.

Of the eight players who qualified automatically, there were only three (McIlroy, Rose and Molinari) with previous Ryder Cup experience, so Bjorn was compelled to add experience for the battle with the Americans where the pressure is about as high as you can get in golf.

Yes, there are question marks about Stenson’s fitness as he has been carrying an injury all season and, of course, Garcia’s form in 2018 has been terrible, but their records speak for themselves and Garcia, like Seve before him, has the happy knack of being able to lift his game for the Ryder Cup.

Europe went into the last Ryder Cup in 2016 at Hazeltine with six rookies on the 12-man team and were well beaten by the Americans, so I suppose with five already qualified the chances of another rookie getting one of Bjorn’s picks were very slim.

Of those who narrowly missed out Cabrera-Bello and Pieters are the unluckiest. The Spaniard played as a rookie in 2016 and returned a very commendable two and a half points from a possible three, so he will no doubt be very disappointed, as will Pieters who also played at Hazeltine, returning four points from a possible five.

However, let’s looks at the records of those chosen. Casey played in three Ryder Cups winning five points from a possible nine, Poulter played in five, winning thirteen from a possible eighteen, Garcia has played in seven winning twenty-three points from thirty-eight and Stenson has played in three cups, winning eight from a possible twelve.

It’s hard to argue with those records which is why I suppose, that Bjorn picked those four players and only time will tell if he was correct or not.