European Ryder Cup Wildcard Players Selected

Paul McGinley has made his wildcard selections for Europe’s Ryder Cup team and given Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood places. The selection means that England’s former world number one Luke Donald has missed out as well as Italy’s Francesco Molinari.

The nine players that automatically qualified for the team are (in ranking order): Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Victor Dubuisson, Jamie Donaldson, Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell.

Gallacher has managed seven top 10 finishes in his last 12 appearances at Gleneagles, Poulter has won 12 of his 15 Ryder Cup matches and Westwood has 21 points from 37 matches at the Ryder Cup.

McGinley said that Gallacher’s third place finish at the Italian Open was a crucial factor in his selection. Gallacher would have qualified automatically had he finished in the top two and after the tournament he was disappointed to have missed out.

After the announcement of the full team, Europe has remained strong favourite to win the Cup with most bookies offering odds in the region of 2/5 on a European victory. The Americans have odds of around 7/4 to win with the best odds of 15/8 available at Ladbrokes.