Donald fills out Europe’s team with familiar names for Ryder Cup defense

Europe captain Luke Donald filled out his -man roster for this month s Ryder Cup with six players who helped the association win back the trophy in Rome two years ago Shane Lowry Jon Rahm Sepp Straka Viktor Hovland Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick were declared Monday as Donald s picks for the Sept - matches against the United States at Bethpage Black Donald will be taking a familiar lineup to New York returning of the players who won the Ryder Cup for the European gang in Indeed the only change two years on sees Rasmus Hojgaard play instead of his twin brother Nicolai Hojgaard is the only Ryder Cup rookie having automatically qualified along with Rory McIlroy Tommy Fleetwood Robert MacIntyre Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton The last time Europe had only one rookie was in when Nicolas Colsaerts helped deliver a famous last-day comeback in the so-called Miracle at Medinah That s the last time a association won a Ryder Cup on the road Obviously a lot of continuity from Rome Donald commented That s atypical to have so a large number of people coming back but it just shows how good these players are But even though we have a lot of continuity this is a different animal to play away in America We understand how laborious that is Sticking to the rankings Lowry Straka Aberg Hovland and Fitzpatrick placed No - on Europe s Ryder Cup rankings so No Matt Wallace who shed tears Sunday when discussing how much getting picked for the association would mean might count himself unfortunate to miss out Selected instead however was Rahm who is a two-time major champion a former world No and was lately crowned as LIV Golf s individual champion for the second straight year U S gang already disclosed U S captain Keegan Bradley publicized his picks last week and the big news was they didn t include himself Justin Thomas Collin Morikawa Cameron Young Ben Griffin Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay were picked to join Scottie Scheffler Xander Schauffele Harris English Bryson DeChambeau J J Spaun and Russell Henley on the organization The Americans will have four rookies Spaun Henley Young and Griffin AP golf https apnews com hub golf Source