Two days ago, Team Europe captain Luke Donald announced his captain’s picks and has been getting mixed responses from the golf world. While people who were in the run for a spot criticized him, he got also the support of some of his fellow players.
And there is one name on the European Tour that is in contention with this year’s team. Despite not getting picked, this 3-time major winner is in full support of Donald’s choices for his picks and believes that Europe is back to its strong old form.
Former Ryder Cup captain shares his positive opinion on Team Europe.
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This week, Harrington is participating in the Irish Open. And while there, he revealed his thoughts about his non-selection and his hopes for Team Europe. Harrington revealed that one day before the big announcement, Donald called him to let him know that he wasn’t picked for the team this year.
Padraig called this gesture of Donald polite. Speaking about the strength of the team, he said, “I think Europe is very strong this year. I think we’re back. I believe we’re back to the ’80s, the ’70s where our top players are actually the best players in the world.”
Harrington himself was the captain of the European team in the 2021 Ryder Cup which sadly lost to Team US. Sharing his ideology on how this year could be different, he says that since Team Europe has a strong pool of players, the top players could rest for the singles.
He wishes that this year all the players should play well so that the best players could sit out at least one match.
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Padraig Harrington looks back on his own term as Ryder Cup captain
Reflecting on his own term in 2021, Harrington says that he had a good team that performed well. He added COVID as a major reason for their loss. He says, “I think we just caught it on our turndown, their upturn. That one extra year of COVID, our team went from peaking to slightly off and never could come back.” At the same time, he thinks that one extra year worked wonders for the team US whose players he believed were at the peak stage.
However, he feels that the European players are also coming into that now and will be bringing a better result this year.
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