The 2023 Ryder Cup on Monday drew one step closer to reality with European captain Luke Donald announcing his six wildcard picks to complete the team that will take on the U.S. Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at Marco Simone in Rome, Italy.
Donald’s captain’s picks were Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg.
They join the six who automatically qualified for the team via the points system: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick.
“Twelve strong,’’ Donald called his team.
Europe has won the past six Ryder Cups played on its home soil.
The U.S., which won the last Ryder Cup, in 2021 at Whistling Straits, is looking to end a 30-year losing streak in Europe that has spanned six matches and dating back to 1993.
If the Americans are going to end the European dominance, they’ll do it with Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele as automatic qualifiers and Zach Johnson captain’s picks, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns.
Both teams will take four rookies to Italy.
The U.S. had three first-timers qualify on points.
Conversely, three of Donald’s captain’s picks are rookies — Straka, Aberg and Hojgaard.
Fleetwood will be playing in his third Ryder Cup.
He made the cut all four majors this year including a tie for fifth in the U.S. Open and a tie for 10th at the British Open.
On the PGA Tour, he lost the RBC Canadian Open in a playoff and tied for sixth last month at the Tour Championship.
Rose, 43, will be playing in his sixth Ryder Cup.
He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Lowry will be playing in his second Ryder Cup.
He won the 2019 British Open and his most recent win was the 2022 BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour.
Straka becomes the second Austrian to compete.
He finished tied for second at the British Open and won for the second time on the PGA Tour in July at the John Deere Classic.
Hojgaard, a 22-year-old from Denmark, has three three top-6 finishes in his last four DP World Tour starts.
Aberg, 23-year-old from Sweden, on Sunday won the European Masters.
He was the top college player in the U.S. in his last two years at Texas Tech.
The one player who was left out, which was a bit of a surprise, was Adrian Meronk from Poland.
He’s won three times, including the Italian Open in May at Marco Simone, where the Ryder Cup matches will be played.
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