They call them wild-card picks for a reason.
Sometimes, they’re unexpected, and signs point to European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke reaching deep down the points list to find one of his three captain’s picks.
According to multiple reports, including from USA Today and Golf Digest, Clarke is leaning toward picking Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Luke Donald with the choices he’ll announce Tuesday. Automatic qualifying ended on Sunday, with nine players officially making the team. Among those nine players are five rookies — Andy Sullivan, Danny Willett, Chris Wood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera-Bello — leaving Clarke perhaps looking for some grounding experience with his picks.
Westwood certainly has that long resume Clarke seeks. He’s been on the European Ryder Cup team since 1997, making nine appearances leading to a 20-15-6 overall record. He was joint runner-up at the Masters, and he’s played fairly well in 2016 on the European Tour.
Kaymer, who lost his PGA Tour card for this season because he didn’t play enough tournaments last year, has been on a tear on the European Tour.
The 38-year-old Donald, however, comes as a surprise given the consensus floated names for the third and final pick were Russell Knox, a two-time PGA Tour winner this season, and Belgian Thomas Pieters, who won the Made in Denmark on Sunday to complete a 4-2-1 stretch in his last three events. The former No. 1 has two runner-up finishes dating back to the RBC Heritage in April and stretching through the Wyndham Championship two weeks ago. However, the in-between was nothing special at all.
Donald, though, does carry a remarkable Ryder Cup record, including in the foursomes format. In four appearances, Donald has a 10-4-1 mark overall, and he’s 6-2-0 in the alternate-shot format and 3-1-0 in the singles matches.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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