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Clarke adds Westwood, Kaymer and Pieters to European Ryder Cup team

Darren Clarke now has his 12-man team in hand. (Getty Images)
Darren Clarke now has his 12-man team in hand. (Getty Images)

The European Ryder Cup team was set on Tuesday, with European captain Darren Clarke hand-picking Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters to the 12-man squad with his wild-card picks.

After five rookies made the Hazeltine-bound team through the nine automatic spots assigned to the qualifying process, Clarke sought out experience in good friend Lee Westwood, who is 20-15-6 in nine previous Ryder Cup appearances, and Martin Kaymer, who holed the Cup-clinching putt in 2012 in the Miracle at Medinah and has been tearing up the European Tour since mid-Spring.

“I was going to look toward experience,” Clarke said. “In Lee and Martin, I have two former No. 1s in the world, and they bring a wealth of experience to the team. It’s not just about the playing; it’s about the team room and the dynamics and everything that’s involved.”

The long-hitting Belgian Pieters, who makes the sixth European rookie, was the final piece of Clarke’s wild-card trio, earning a spot after winning the European Tour’s Made in Denmark on Sunday in the last event of the qualifying period. Pieters, however, likely cemented his place on the team on Thursday in Denmark when, playing alongside Clarke, he shot an opening 9-under 62 at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort.

“Thomas knew exactly why I was playing with him,” Clarke said. “Prior to that, there was a few other contenders that I was thinking about, as well. But Thomas went out and played unbelievable, shot 62, one of the finest 62s I’ve ever witnessed and made it look very easy.”

Pieters has also been hot in the two prior events leading into his third European Tour win, finishing a nervy fourth in the men’s Olympic golf competition and second in the Czech Masters the week prior to Denmark.

Left off the team was Scotland’s Russell Knox, who has won twice on the PGA Tour this season, including the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and the Travelers Championship the week after the PGA Championship. Knox, like Pieters is, would have been another rookie on the European team. However, though Knox maintains European Tour membership (a must for being considered to make the European Ryder Cup team), he does not have strong ties to the Tour. That likely hurt him in his mostly off-shore campaign.

“That’s been an incredibly tough decision,” Clarke said Tuesday. “I haven’t slept a whole lot. I had to phone Russell yesterday to give him the information (that he didn’t make the team), and it’s probably one of the toughest phone calls I’ve had to make.”

Nonetheless, Knox was classy in his response to Clarke’s decision.

American captain Davis Love III has four picks at his disposal after his eight automatic qualifiers were decided after The Barclays on Sunday. Among the eight players already on the team, Brooks Koepka is the only Ryder Cup rookie, giving the American side a combination of experience and some leeway to potentially bring on fresh blood to a squad that has lost eight of the last 10 matches in the biennial series.

Love will make three of his four picks after the BMW Championship on Sept. 11, then will complete the team on Sept. 25 with a final pick after the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship.

The 2016 Ryder Cup will be played Sept. 30 – Oct. 2 at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minn.


Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.


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