Ryder Cup vice-captains ‘sick to stomach’ over brutal selection call

Team Europe’s Ryder Cup vice-captains Thomas Bjorn and Nicolas Colsaerts have expressed their sympathies towards Polish golfer Adrian Meronk after he was left out of the 12-man team. Meronk failed to make the cut, either by automatic qualification or being selected by captain Luke Donald.

Donald’s team consists of six wildcard picks for the prestigious tournament. Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Justin Rose, Nicolai Hojgaard, Sepp Straka and Tommy Fleetwood all made the team after impressing Donald throughout the year.

A number of golfers had to miss out, with Meronk one of those who will be forced to watch from home. The 30-year-old feels hard done by after registering nine top-20 finishes this year, including two wins at the Australian Open and the Italian Open.

Meronk’s wins saw him narrowly miss out on automatic qualification after finishing fifth on the European points list. And one of Europe’s vice-captains Thomas Bjorn, who was Europe’s 2018 Ryder Cup winning captain, has admitted to feeling sympathetic toward the Polish golfer.

“We have the picks to make the right team but there’s not one person in golf who doesn’t feel for Adrian Meronk,” Bjorn said. “There really isn’t. I spoke to him last week. I feel gutted for him and I’ve been in that situation myself.

“You feel like you should be there but that’s how it is and as I said to Luke the day after he made his picks ‘now we focus on the 12 – that’s our job.’ I’m really convinced that Adrian will be there in the future.”

Bjorn’s comments come after Meronk addressed the snub and admitted to feeling frustrated. “It’s been an emotional time for me to be honest,” he said.

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“From shock to sadness to anger and now I’m trying to turn it into motivation going into this week. Obviously it’s a hard one to swallow, I thought I’d done enough to be on that team.”

Fellow team Europe vice-captain Nicolas Colsaerts also weighed in on the decision, claiming: “It was very difficult and all of us felt really sick to the stomach for him because we knew he played well.

“Almost made the team on points and he’s been quite successful over here but every time there’s one or two phone calls that are painful to make and this time it’s Adrian. We all felt really bad for him.”

The Ryder Cup will start on September 25 at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy.

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