Thomas Bjorn’s wildcard picks contain one very controversial call

Niall McIntyre

It’s only three weeks away now.

The Ryder Cup goes to tee at the end of the month in Paris and it would be an understatement to say that Europe go into the competition as underdogs. It may be a home tournament but American golfers have been lording it in the majority of the majors in recent times, and Jim Furyk looks spoiled for choice in comparison to team Europe’s captain Thomas Bjorn.

Furyk showed his hand on Wednesday morning and his squad of twelve are a who’s who of the best golfers in the world right now.

The automatic selections included five of the top ten ranked golfers in the world and these were bolstered by the addition of World Number seven Bryson Dechambeau and two of the game’s best and most experienced in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

We’ll see you in Paris!🇺🇸🇺🇸@PhilMickelson @b_dechambeau @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/SscUZHs0ah

— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 4, 2018

American team

Brooks Koepka (World No.2, US Open and US PGA winner 2018, US Open winner 2017)
Patrick Reed (Masters winner 2018)
Dustin Johnson (World No.1)
Justin Thomas (World No.3, US PGA winner 2017)
Bubba Watson (Masters winner 2012 and 2014)
Jordan Spieth (World No.10, Masters and US Open winner 2015, The Open winner 2017)
Rickie Fowler (8-time tournament winner, World No. 9)
Webb Simpson (US Open winner 2012)

Tony Finau completes the American line-up.

European team

The European team was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon, and captain Thomas Bjorn didn’t really go against the grain with his wildcard selections. Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey were chosen as expected and the only controversial choice in the captain’s picks was that of Sergio Garcia.

The selection of the Spaniard was debatable seeing as the 2017 Masters Champion has had a disaster of a year, a disaster he had the chance to reverse last week in the Made in Denmark tournament – the last real chance for the player who didn’t make the top-125 of the FedEx standings to impress his captain.

Colin Montgomerie was among those who hit out at this decision from Garcia.

Bjorn is banking on Sergio’s Ryder Cup experience and the competitive atmosphere of it all to bring the best out of the 38-year-old.

The in form Thomas Pieters was among those who may feel aggrieved at missing out at the expense of Garcia. The Belgian was a record-breaker in his rookie Ryder Cup in 2016, picking up four out of the five points available to him while teaming up well with Rory McIlroy throughout.