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Garcia, Poulter and Lowry receive Ryder Cup call up

European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has named Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry and Ian Poulter as his three captain’s picks for this year’s contest, which gets under way at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in just 12 days’ time.

Lowry was knocked out of the automatic qualification places when Bernd Wiesberger finished tied 20th at Wentworth, lifting the Austrian into the final spot on the European points list and pushing Rory McIlroy over to the world points list.

The Irishman went into the final round in a share of seventh and required a top-eight finish to replace Lee Westwood in the World Points List, although stuttered to a final-round 71 to leave him in tied-17th and requiring a captain’s pick.
Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter both earned captain’s picks and will tee it up at Whistling Straits

Harrington’s three selections will join McIlroy, Wiesberger, Westwood, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland in the European side looking to retain their trophy, three years on from the 17.5-10.5 victory over USA in Paris.

Garcia will make his tenth Ryder Cup appearance and his second in a row as a captain’s pick, having won three of his four matches to become Europe’s record points scorer during their 2018 victory at Le Golf National.
The 41-year-old was one of only three European players to make it through the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship, having won the Sanderson Farms Championship earlier the year, with the Spaniard arriving at East Lake off the back of a tied-sixth finish at the BMW Championship.

Poulter also secured a pick after a solid summer on the PGA Tour, where he claimed a share of third at the Charles Schwab Challenge and added a top-10 at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, while the Englishman also enjoyed a top-four finish at the Scottish Open.

Justin Rose, who finished tied-sixth at the BMW PGA Championship after a final round 65, and has played in five of the last six Ryder Cups, was the biggest casualty of Harrington’s decision to have only three captain’s picks compared to US captain Steve Stricker’s six. The former world no.1 has endured a quiet season by anyone’s standards, having slipped down to no.45 in the world rankings, but many felt that the 41-year-old’s past Ryder Cup form would have been good enough to earn a pick, but given the strength of the competition someone had to lose out.