TEAM EUROPE
Captain: Thomas Bjorn
Vice Captains: Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Robert Karlsson, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood
Automatic Qualifyers
Francesco Molinari
3rd Appearance (0-3-2)
Ignore his winless Ryder Cup record, this is a different Francesco Molinari than the one who failed to impress for the Europeans in 2010 and 2012. The now-world No. 5 Molinari won three times in 2018, once in Europe and once on the PGA Tour, before his breakthrough championship: an incredible triumph at the Open Championship, where he famously played the weekend bogey-free, despite having to withstand the Tiger Woods Circus on Sunday.
The 35-year-old is not always compatible with his putter, but his iron game has been unreal, and he ranked 3rd on the PGA Tour this season in strokes gained: tee-to-green. Le Golf National is a course that fits well to Molinari’s game, and he could end up being Europe’s most important player.
Molinari has been a little up-and-down since the WIN-2-T25-WIN-T2-WIN tear that he went on midseason, but he did finish T6 at the PGA Championship, the second year in a row he has posted a top 10 there, and was T8 at the recent BMW Championship, the third leg of the FedExCup Playoffs.
Justin Rose
5th Appearance (11-6-2)
Fresh off a FedExCup title and the best 12 month stretch of his career, if Bjorn is going to take out the “big guns” during the competition, Rose is who he will be talking about. Playing the Tour Championship last week as the world’s No. 1 for the first time, Rose did not have the Sunday he wanted, but at T4, it was yet another high finish for the 38-year-old Englishman, and it was enough to get him the $10 million FedExCup prize. If he can do what he needs to under THAT kind of pressure, not to mention what he did at the 2016 Olympics in winning a gold medal, he is probably the best chance the Europeans have of pulling this off.
Rose has formed a great team with Henrik Stenson at the last two Ryder Cups, and that could very likely be a pairing Bjorn relies heavily on. He won his singles match at his first two Ryder Cups, but has not played as well on Sunday the past two years, halving with the man who used to be Hunter Mahan in 2014, and losing a close match to Rickie Fowler in 2016.
Tyrrell Hatton
Rookie
Hatton, the fourth-highest ranked Englishman in the field, might be a rookie, but he could end up being the biggest wild card for the Europeans. A very streaky player, when the 26-year-old is feeling it, he is one of the best in the world. However, he has a reputation for being exceptionally emotional, and when things go badly for him, they tend to keep going badly. In 2017, he missed the cut at all four majors, but then bounced back with back-to-back wins in Europe late in the year, part of a 10-week span where he finished 19th or better in each start, with six top 10s. In 2018, he proceeded to make the cut in all four majors, with top 10s at both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. His excellent putting makes him a threat anywhere.
Hatton is a passionate guy, and that can be a huge asset at the Ryder Cup, as long as he can avoid getting too down if things are not going well.
Tommy Fleetwood
Rookie
Fleetwood has been one of the best European golfers in the world over the past two years, best illustrated by his 2017 European Tour Race to Dubai title. The 27-year-old from England should be one of the most popular players among the home crowd. He is an extremely affable player and has the ability to get very hot on the course.
As good as Fleetwood has been, recently he has been plagued by inconsistency within an event. At the brutally difficult U.S. Open this year, Fleetwood managed a second round 66, and an absolutely sizzling final round 63 that nearly won him the event in a valiant comeback effort. However, he also shot a first round 75 and a third round 78. He had similar showings at The Open Championship and the WGC-Bridgestone.
At the recent BMW Championship, the third leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, he dug himself a big hole with a first round 71, but then went crazy in the middle rounds with back-to-back 8-under 62s, setting a Tour record in the process, before struggling to keep the birdie train going in round 4 with a 1-under 69.
Fleetwood is very talented, but struggles to put four rounds together. In the Ryder Cup format, that might not matter, but his side will need him to be more consistent than he has as of late.
Jon Rahm
Rookie
This is the first Ryder Cup appearance for the 23-year-old Spaniard, but it would be shocking if it does not end up being the first of many. Worldwide, Rahm has five wins over the past two seasons, and seems to be able to put up incredible performances regardless of the type of course. His game seems to translate everywhere. This season, he ranked third on Tour in both strokes gained: off-the-tee and birdie average. He reached as high as No. 2 in the world rankings this year, although the higher he was ranked, the worse he seemed to play. He is currently 8th.
Rahm had two wins in 2018, the PGA Tour’s CareerBuilder Challenge in January, and the European Tour’s Spanish Open in April. He has been a little more hit-or-miss on the season as a whole, however, which is to be expected for a player so young. He struggled for a while after his CareerBuilder triumph, and he was a complete non-factor in the FedExCup playoffs after finishing in the top 7 of all four legs in 2017.
Rahm is another one of those players who wears his emotions on his sleeve, which could both be a benefit and a detriment at the Ryder Cup.
Rory McIlroy
5th Appearance (9-6-4)
Making five Ryder Cup teams before the age of 30 is a very, very impressive feat, one that will be accomplished by 29-year-old Rory McIlroy when he tees off in Paris on Friday.
A four-time major champion, Rory’s best might be the best of anyone in the world, which we saw in 2018 when he destroyed the back nine at Bay Hill on Sunday to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his stellar Sunday showing at The Open Championship when he was trying to chase down the leaders, and in the first round at last week’s Tour Championship, where he was on 59 watch after a ridiculous start at East Lake.
McIlroy has a positive record at the Ryder Cup, and his three points at the last Ryder Cup was second most on the European side, as he went 3-2-0, and took Patrick Reed to the final hole on Sunday in what was the match of the tournament.
However, Rory has suddenly become far less reliable in high-pressure situations than he used to. He was outdueled late in several European Tour events in 2018. At The Masters, he made the final Sunday pairing with Reed, but put together an uninspiring round 4 effort when a win would have given him the career grand slam.
He also bombed his Sunday round at the WGC-Bridgestone when he was in second place through 54 holes, and at last week’s Tour Championship, he made the final Sunday pairing and was abysmal, shooting a 74 while paired with childhood idol Tiger Woods to drop into a tie for 7th.
He is good, everyone knows he is good, but he has not looking like A+ Rory over the past two years, and the Europeans might need that to get the cup back against a formidable American team.
Alex Noren
Rookie
At 36 years old, Noren will be the oldest Ryder Cup Rookie in Paris this year. His history in bigger stage events is a little questionable, but he does have 10 career victories, with seven of those coming in the past four seasons.
The world’s highest-ranked Swede, Noren made a splash on the PGA Tour for the first time earlier this season, finishing runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he took Jason Day to six playoff holes, and taking third at the Honda Classic and the WGC-Match Play. He has not looked quite as well since March, at least not on U.S. soil, but he did win the French Open in early July.
Noren is not the longest hitter, but he is accurate, and ranked 5th on the PGA Tour this year in strokes gained: putting. With his lack of experience, and the recent drop-off in his form, Noren is one of the biggest unknowns for the European side.
Thorbjorn Olesen
Rookie
The biggest unknown on either side of the Ryder Cup has to be Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen. He rarely plays in PGA Tour events and he has not been relevant in a major over the past five years, but he has been one of Europe’s hottest players since June, when he outdueled Francesco Molinari at the Italian Open.
Since that victory, he has added four more results inside the top 6, and an additional three inside the top 20, playing well enough to earn his way onto the Ryder Cup team via automatic qualifying. He even showed some skill in the U.S. when he took third place at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, looking like the best player on Sunday with a final round 64. He is a long hitter, but has been especially sharp on the greens as of late.
At 3-9, the 28-year-old does not have the most impressive match play record, but that may not matter as he has clearly taken his game to a different level in the past six months.
Captain’s Picks
Paul Casey
4th Appearance (3-2-4)
Casey has played in three previous Ryder Cups, but none since 2008, where he failed to win a match for the losing Europeans. Bjorn referred to Casey as an “easy pick”, and looking at his results in recent years, it is easy to see why. He rarely wins, but in 44 PGA Tour events over the past two seasons, he has 30 top-25 finishes and has missed just three cuts. At the Valspar Championship in mid-March, Casey notched his first PGA Tour victory since 2009 and his first anywhere since 2014.
Despite the plethora of high finishes, Casey’s game has been a complete disaster since he squandered a large final round lead to Bubba Watson at the Travelers Championship in late June, posting one of the worst Sunday rounds in the field. His only top 20 on the PGA Tour since was a T11 at last week’s 30-man Tour Championship.
A man who has struggled significantly to close tournaments in his career, Bjorn will be praying that one of his most experienced players will look like it in Paris. This is a level of pressure that Casey has not always played well with, despite losing just two of nine matches in his Ryder Cup career.
Sergio Garcia
9th Appearance (19-11-7)
With five of the eight automatic European qualifiers being Ryder Cup rookies, it made sense that Bjorn would want to add some experience with his Captain’s picks, hence, the pick of Sergio, who has played in eight of these in the past.
Even with playing in more Ryder Cups than anyone else on the European side, however, Garcia was easily Bjorn’s most controversial selection. He played well in 2017, winning The Masters, along with two European events, but in 2018, Sergio has been downright abysmal.
Starting with a disastrous defense of his green jacket at Augusta, Garcia missed 8 cuts in 11 PGA Tour events, with nothing better than a tie for 24th, and he failed to make the top 125 in the FedExCup Standings, causing him to miss the playoffs. Most importantly, he failed to make the weekend at any of the four majors.
Many felt his inclusion on the European Team ahead of fellow countryman Rafa Cabrera Bello, who has been much better in 2018 and played very well at the 2016 Ryder Cup, was ridiculous.
Sergio’s results in Europe were marginally better, and to his credit, he did finish 7th at last week’s Portugal Masters and shot a Sunday 65, although with the poor strength of field, it is unknown how much can be drawn for the result.
If there is something that should make Sergio confident and help him recapture his best form, it should be his impressive Ryder Cup record. He won just one match at the last Ryder Cup, but was phenomenal in a halved Sunday singles match against Phil Mickelson, where he was bogey-free and had nine birdies. Ony an equally outstanding performance from Mickelson, who had 10 birdies, prevented Sergio from winning the full point.
Ian Poulter
6th Appearance (12-4-2)
The ostentatious 42-year-old Poulter takes a lot of heat for never having won a major, but what cannot be argued about his career is that he is an absolutely phenomenal Ryder Cup Player; one of the best in the history of the event. It would have taken a special kind of dreadful last two years for Bjorn to not make Poulter a Captain’s Pick, and that came nowhere close to happening. Poulter missed the 2016 Ryder Cup with an injury, but he is likely to fit in seamlessly given his stellar past.
Poulter has enjoyed a career resurgence over the past two years. After nearly losing his PGA Tour card, he re-discovered his form, posting a series of strong results in 2017, and was even better in 2018, where he won the Houston Open, his first victory anywhere since 2012. He had a poor showing in the FedExCup Playoffs, posting finishes of T48-CUT-T51 and failing to qualify for the Tour Championship, but there is little doubt that he will be bringing it in Paris. This is where he shines.
Henrik Stenson
5th Appearance (7-7-2)
Given his past success, it is surprising that Stenson was not an automatic qualifier, but his 2018 season was mostly underwhelming, and he has struggled significantly since a T6 finish at the U.S. Open. An elbow injury hurt his results later in the year, and it is unknown whether it is still a factor. When he is healthy, there are parts of his game that are absolutely exceptional: he led the PGA Tour in both driving accuracy and greens in regulation this season. That accuracy is an enormous benefit to the Europeans.
Stenson has had mixed results in his Ryder Cup career, but the duo of he and Rose have been the best team the Europeans have formed in the past two editions. At the 2016 Cup, Stenson comfortably defeated Jordan Spieth 3&2 in Sunday singles. Combined with his all-time great performance dueling Phil Mickelson at the 2017 Open Championship, it is obvious that Stenson feels very comfortable in one-on-one situations.
