Knox holding out for final Ryder Cup wild card
Knox and Pieters in frame for the final captain’s pick
RYDER CUP captain Darren Clarke is wrestling with the hardest decision of his golfing life as he makes his mind up about his final selection for Europe’s team.
With nine automatic places locked up and Lee Westwood certain to get one wild card when they’re announced on Tuesday, Germany’s Martin Kaymer wrapped up a second with a third-round 66 yesterday to move into contention in the Made in Denmark tournament in Himmer-land and confirm his good form of late.
In the frantic scramble to be Europe’s final captain’s pick, Shane Lowry and Soren Kjeldsen haven’t done enough in Denmark, while Graeme McDowell missed the halfway cut in The Barclays tournament in New York. Luke Donald was in need of a miracle weekend in the same event to catch Clarke’s eye.
Which leaves two main contenders: Scotland’s Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters from Belgium.
If picking wild cards was all about what the head says and based purely on a player’s standing, Knox would get the nod.
The 31-year-old from Inverness would have been comfortably in the team already if his win in the Champions tournament in China last November had counted.
He wasn’t a European Tour member at the time, so it didn’t, but even without it he finished just a handful of points behind Matt Fitzpatrick for the ninth and last automatic slot.
When the FedEx Cup play-offs began in the US last Thursday — and bearing in mind this Ryder Cup will be played in Minneapolis next month — Knox began in fourth place and inside the world’s top 20.
In America, they consider him a ‘lock’ for a pick and, if Clarke ignores him, there is the potential for considerable embarrassment should Knox go on to win the FedEx Cup in Atlanta on the Sunday before the Ryder Cup starts.
But Edoardo Molinari became the sixth rookie for Colin Montgomerie’s team at Celtic Manor in 2010 with a scintillating late run and Pieters is threatening to upset the applecart in a similar fashion. Just outside the medals in fourth place at the Olympics, and runner-up at the Czech Masters last week, Pieters was certainly put under the microscope by Clarke when the pair played together for the first two rounds in Denmark.
Far from struggling to cope with the pressure, the 24-year-old’s response was a stunning 62 that certainly impressed the Northern Irishman.
‘That’s one of the finest 62s I’ve ever seen,’ said Clarke.
The fact Pieters flew back from Brazil to play in two European events in a desperate attempt to make the team will not hurt his chances, either.
Pieters goes into today’s final round in Denmark in joint-second place, one shot behind Welsh veteran Bradley Dredge, as he seeks the victory that might prove a gamechanger. Kaymer is four off the pace.
In America, the first eight qualifiers will be confirmed this evening, with Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler in position at halfway in The Barclays to confirm their places, alongside the five who have guaranteed their spots already: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Jimmy Walker and the one rookie in the line-up, Brooks Koepka.
The last spot looked a three-way tussle between former Open Champion Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and big-hitting JB Holmes.
US captain Davis Love will name his four wild cards next month.
Reed led The Barclays event by two shots after 36 holes, with Fowler, showing a welcome burst of form after a slow summer, joint second.
Scotland’s Martin Laird was one under par for his third-round front nine and stood at three strokes off the lead.