Well, that was something of a scunner. In the opulent surrounds of the Wentworth ballroom, there would be no Highland fling. Instead, the Scottish golf scribblers who had ventured south to leafy Surrey hoping to wax lyrical about Inverness exile Russell Knox’s inclusion in the Ryder Cup team were left reeling around like the Keystone Cops trying to perform the Dashing White Sergeant after he failed to gain one of European captain Darren Clarke’s three wild cards.
Opportunity didn’t come knocking for Knox. In the end it was the seasoned, safe hands of Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer and the young, thrusting Belgian debutant Thomas Pieters who completed Europe’s 12-man team for the tussle at Hazeltine.
We knew the bad tidings were coming. With more leaks than the cistern on a torpedoed battleship, the word that Pieters had been given the nod ahead of Knox was on the street well before the 12.30pm announcement.
Knox knew before anybody else, of course. The phone call he received from Clarke on Monday must have been about as downbeat as a brief blether with the undertaker. Clarke was the bearer of grim news but the Northern Irishman had plenty of sympathy for the spurned Scot, who had illuminated his season with a brace of victories on the PGA Tour and, at 20th in the world, remains the sixth highest European golfer on the global pecking order.
“I knew how much of a disappointment it would be, because in 2008, I won two weeks before the team was announced and it was my second win of the year and I didn't get a pick,” recalled Clarke. “I know how much I was hurting at that stage.
“The call was as hard a phone call as I've ever had to make in golfing terms. It's one of those harsh realities. You make a Ryder Cup or you don't make a Ryder Cup. You could go back through all Ryder Cup history and you'll find people in Russell's position. But the only way to make sure you're on that team is to finish in the top nine (of qualifying).”
Knox didn’t manage that. He would have been in, however, had he joined the European Tour before his huge WGC HSBC Champions win last November. In this Ryder Cup game, it’s all what ifs, maybes and might have beens. After his rousing Travelers Championship triumph at the start of August, Clarke had made direct contact with Knox to see if he would play in The Wyndham Championship and, possibly, lock up an automatic spot. The Scot did not alter his schedule, though, and gave it a miss. “If he had played The Wyndham, maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” suggested Clarke.
It was Pieters, the 24-year-old from Antwerp, who seized the moment with a rampaging run for the line which came to an ultimately triumphant finale last Sunday when he birdied his final three holes to win the Made in Denmark event and convince Clarke that he was the man of the moment and a star of the future. “I've been on Tour for a long time and I've seen massive talents come along,” said Clarke, who will have six rookies in his line-up for the showdown with the US. “I played with Tiger Woods when he was an amateur at. I've seen Rory McIlroy up close since he was a very, very young kid. Thomas impresses me in the same league as those guys. He has that amount of talent. It was a very difficult choice for me to make between Russell and Thomas. But I went for form. Russell has got form as well, but Thomas showed me just a little bit more. I went with my gut feeling.”
Knox would be left gutted. Pieters, meanwhile, clearly has the stomach for the Ryder Cup fight. A highly polished US college campaigner during his amateur days, Pieters is a prodigious talent who gives the little dimpled ball an almighty clatter but also possesses a dinky short game which could certainly ruffle a few feathers in head-to-head combat. He also has a bit of one-upmanship over a certain Jordan Spieth, having beaten a field, which included the former world No 1, to the NCAA Division 1 Championship during those college golf years. “There’s no fear factor,” insisted Pieters. “I’m sure I’ll be up to the task.”
As Europe look for an unprecedented four wins in a row, Clarke will be hoping his other 11 are up to it too.
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