The Offaly native is currently in the sixth and final qualification spot, but that could all change this weekend
Shane Lowry faces a nervous weekend as he waits to see whether he will be pipped for the final Ryder Cup automatic qualification spot.
Lowry currently holds the sixth and final qualification spot for the Ryder Cup, but he will be knocked out of the top-six should Rasmus Hojgaard finish in a two-way tie for 29th or better at the British Masters this weekend.
Offaly native Lowry has long been considered to be a lock to automatically qualify for Team Europe as the Ryder Cup takes place at Bethpage Black in New York. Lowry starred in both defeat in 2021 and glorious victory in 2023, with the Open Champion a wildcard pick on both occasions.
Luke Donald will name his six wildcard picks on Monday, September 1 and it is not expected that there will be wholesale changes to the team that won in Rome two years ago.
Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre have sealed five of the six automatic qualification spots. One of Lowry or Hojgaard will take the final spot, with the other almost certainly securing a pick from Donald, with Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka and Viktor Hovland likely to be picked barring a major surprise from Donald.
On the US side of the equation, Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau have all secured qualification as the home side look to regain the trophy on American soil.
Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin and Sam Burns are all expected to join Scheffler and Co in representing the red, white and blue, but speculation persists over whether captain Keegan Bradley will use his final pick to select himself.
The 39-year-old hasn’t committed to naming himself, nor has he confirmed that he would be selecting another in form player such as Cameron Young or Chris Gotterup. Should he select himself, Bradley will become the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer led the Americans in 1963.
One man who has no interest in being a playing captain is Rory McIlroy, who last week revealed that he has already shot down that notion.
“I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down,” said McIlroy, who was the first player to automatically qualify for Europe’s team for next month’s event at Bethpage in New York.
“The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away because I don’t think you can do it.
“If you’d have said it 20 years ago I’d say it was probably possible to do, but how big of a spectacle it is and everything that’s on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in.
“There’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.
“The captain’s only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. Would you rather not have a player that has the flexibility to go twice if he’s playing well?”
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