The daisy has finally been plucked. Luke Donald and the Ryder Cup Europe team announced this Wednesday the last two members of the Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland teams that will compete in the Team Cup from 10th to 12th January at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
The chosen ones are Frenchman Romain Langasque and Englishman Matthew Jordan. Thus, for the second consecutive edition, there will be no Spaniards in this kind of dress rehearsal for the Ryder Cup. Undoubtedly, it’s bad news, although it obviously doesn’t mean we won’t have Spaniards at the Bethpage event in September. To begin with, the presence of Jon Rahm is practically a sure bet, Sergio García will also have his chances after regaining his membership of the DP World Tour, and any other Spaniards currently playing on the European circuit, as well as David Puig or Eugenio Chacarra, will have their opportunity if they manage to have a great year in 2025. It should be noted that in recent months, Luke Donald’s team has closely followed Hidalgo, Puig, or Ayora, to name a few examples.
Be that as it may, we won’t have Spaniards in this competition that one fine day Severiano Ballesteros revived under the name Seve Trophy. How wonderful it would be if the DP World Tour took a decisive step forward and restored that name to this competition, which has brought so much glory to the Ryder Cup. Whether easy or difficult, they should get to work to find the solution.
The Spaniards who were most strongly considered for this edition of the Team Cup were Jorge Campillo, Ángel Hidalgo, and Pablo Larrazábal. However, when it came down to it, Donald and his team preferred to choose others for this test. Of the three, Campillo has played the most regularly and consistently over the past three months, but it wasn’t enough. Hidalgo was in Donald’s plans, but his performance after the victory in the Open de España didn’t help with the final decision.
Thus, the Continental Europe team is made up of Danes, French, and Italians. The ten members are Italians Francesco Molinari, who acts as captain and player, and Matteo Manassero, Danes Rasmus Hojgaard, Nicolai Hojgaard, Rasmus Neergaard Petersen, Niklas Norgaard, and Thorbjorn Olesen, and Frenchmen Matthieu Pavon, Antoine Rozner, and Romain Langasque.
Opposite, in the Islands team, will be Justin Rose, as captain-player, Laurie Canter, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Jordan, Tom McKibbin, Aaron Rai, Jordan Smith, Matt Wallace, and Paul Waring. The decision to include Jordan was decisively influenced by his good performance last week at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, where he finished second, as well as his tenth place at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
