The automatic bids earned by the European Ryder Cup team were earned by five guys with no Ryder Cup experience. Head Coach Thomas Bjorn made up for this by going heavy on experience with his captain’s picks.
The European Ryder Cup team have been incredibly dominant over the last 23 years. Going back to 1995, they are 8-3 against the U.S. squad. Twice over that span, they matches the largest margin of victory in modern Ryder Cup history. In both 2004 and 2006, they beat the U.S. squad 18.5-9.5.
There are a lot of members on this year’s squad that remember those matches. Every single captain’s pick, to go along with the Vice Captains and Captain himself, either played or coached in one of those years, except for Graeme McDowell.
None of the players who earned automatic bids played in those matches. This is where Thomas Bjorn’s choice of going with veteran players will be a good mix with the inexperience of the automatic bids. Those eight players have ten Ryder Cup appearances. The four captain’s picks have many more, coming in with twice as many, with 20 appearances.
Qualifying for the European team is a little different and a little more confusing than qualifying for the U.S. team. The U.S. is straightforward at top eight in points. The European side takes the top four on the Race to Dubai points list. They then take the top four on the Worlds Points list. Europe then rounds out their squad with four captain’s picks.
For the first time, the Ryder Cup is going to be held in France. It will be at the Albatros Course at Le Golf National, located in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The Ryder Cup stats on September 28th. Let’s take a look at the European side, and how each of the golfers have performed in the past. Each golfers stats were compiled from the Ryder Cup official website, and are listed as win-loss-draw.