Luke Donald announced his six captain’s picks on Monday to complete the European team for the upcoming Ryder Cup. The captain didn’t surprise many with his selections, although he did make at least one controversial decision.
Donald awarded his sixth and final pick to Matt Fitzpatrick, a player with a disastrous record in three previous appearances at the event. Fitzpatrick has just one point in eight matches played. However, the head of the European team backed his decision with what he considered the most solid arguments.
“Matt himself said he didn’t get off to the best start this year and was struggling with his game a little bit,” Donald said after announcing Fitzpatrick’s selection live on Sky Sports, “but he’s one that’s turned it around impressively.
“I think nobody has sort of statistically been as good as Matt has in the last three or four months. And I challenged Matt to go play the last two events in Europe and getting into the last group on Sunday the last two weeks, I think just showed us everything that Matt has playing tremendous golf right now, six top 10s I think in his last eight starts and you know really really impressive to see how much his game has come along trying to make this team.”
Matt Fitzpatrick of Team Europe talks with Luke Donald, Captain of Team Europe on the first tee during a practice round prior to the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club on September 26,…
Matt Fitzpatrick of Team Europe talks with Luke Donald, Captain of Team Europe on the first tee during a practice round prior to the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club on September 26, 2023 in Rome, Italy.
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Fitzpatrick has only earned five top-10 finishes this season on the PGA Tour, but all of them came in his last 10 starts. That streak includes finishing tied for eighth at the PGA Championship and tied for fourth at the Open Championship.
As if that weren’t enough, the 2022 US Open winner traveled to Europe immediately after the BMW Championship to play two tournaments. He also finished in the top ten in both, which evidently ended up deciding Donald.
However, it’s hard to overlook Fitzpatrick’s tremendously poor performance in his Ryder Cup career.
The two-time PGA Tour winner debuted with the European team in 2016, where he played only two matches and lost both, including the singles against Zach Johnson. He returned to the team in 2021 and lost each of his three matches, including the singles against Daniel Berger.
In 2023, he made the team once again and earned the only Ryder Cup point of his career to date, teaming up with Rory McIlroy to defeat Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele in four-balls. Needless is to say, he lost the singles match again, this time to Max Homa.
The decision to select Fitzpatrick left out players many considered potential prospects, such as Sergio Garcia, Matt Wallace, and Harry Hall.
Fitzpatrick completes the 12-player group that will play at Bethpage Black under Donald’s direction. The other 11 names are McIlroy, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Rasmus Hojgaard, Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Ludvig Aberg.
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