The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Opportunity Knox has last shot
Ryder wildcard contest hots up
Russell Knox will place all his Ryder Cup wildcard selection eggs in one last basket in this week’s Barclays championship in Long Island, New York.
With the top nine qualifiers for next month’s Europe team already decided a week ahead of the cut-off date for qualifying automatically, Inverness golfer Knox needs a good showing in the first of the fedex Cup play-off series to get Darren Clarke’s nod for one of his three Hazeltine wildcard selections.
Clarke will announce his three picks at the Wentworth club at noon next Tuesday.
With five rookies already in the team, Clarke could be ready to pick close friend Lee Westwood and double major winner Martin Kaymer as two of the wild cards.
His third pick could be a toss-up between Knox, four-time Ryder Cup star Graeme McDowell, who was fifth in Sunday’s concluding Wyndham championship, former world number one Luke Donald, who posted a very timely second in the same North Carolina event, finishing behind South Korea’s Kim Si-woo, or Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, who was second in his defence of last weekend’s Czech Masters. Ireland’s Shane Lowry is also in the frame.
Only once before in European Ryder Cup history has a captain gone into a Ryder Cup with six rookies. That happened in 2010 when the captain was Colin Montgomerie, who led Europe against the Americans at Celtic Manor.
However, two of those rookies were Rory McIlroy and Germany’s Kaymer, who six weeks earlier had captured the first of his two majors.
In Knox’s favour is his continuing claim that he won last November’s WGC–HSBC Champions event as a non-European Tour member.
Had he joined the tour ahead of teeing-up in Shanghai he would not be in the situation of needing a wildcard pick.
McDowell stated on Sunday he is more focused on qualifying for a first time for next month’s tour championship on the PGA Tour.
“My number one priority contesting the Wyndham last week was to limber up for the play-offs. The Ryder Cup is a shot in the dark for me and that’s how I am looking at it," he said.
“I know I am out of the European team 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.”
The Northern Irishman added: “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.
“And you’ve got Russell
Knox, who is playing incredibly.
“And then there’s Shane Lowry, 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 Clarkey’s mind as I am just trying to do my thing and this week for me is all about the FedEx Cup playoffs.
“If the Ryder Cup were to get in the way, so be it and it would be mission accomplished.”
Lowry, who has given up the chance of capturing the Barclays £1.1million first prize cheque to try to impress Clarke in the Made in Denmark tournament, also starting on Thursday, seems resolved to work towards qualifying automatically for the 2018 European team.
He said: “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 promise I will be better equipped and better prepared.”