Rasmus Hojgaard has stopped suffering. His face said it all on the 18th hole at Belfry after sinking the par putt that definitively confirmed his presence in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage in a month’s time. The Dane started the week at the British Masters with a mission and he has completed it. He needed to finish in a tie for 29th place or better and he has comfortably achieved the goal. When he signed the card, he was in 13th place. No matter how the day ends, it will always be much better than the mentioned 29th place.
The automatic qualification for the European Ryder Cup team closed this week at the British Masters and only one spot remained to be confirmed. The calculations were simple. Only Rasmus Hojgaard had a mathematical chance of qualifying and only Shane Lowry, who is playing the Tour Championship at East Lake, could be left out. This is what has finally happened. Thus, Rasmus completes the sextet that has secured their ticket to New York directly alongside Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Tyrrell Hatton.
With the mystery of the qualifiers finally cleared up, only Luke Donald’s six wildcard picks remain to be known to complete the 12-man team that will try to win again on American soil thirteen years later. This will be known on 1st September, in eight days, one day after the end of the Omega European Masters.
As you already know, there are five players who are strong favourites for those six spots. It could almost be said that they are assigned, unless something majorly surprising happens. We are referring to Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, and Jon Rahm. If this is the case, only one more spot will remain to complete the squad. The fight right now is mainly between Matthew Fitzpatrick, Nicolai Hojgaard, and Marco Penge, although we should not rule out any other last-minute candidates depending on what happens at Crans-Montana.
The reality is that Rasmus Hojgaard has had everything under control all week and has shown nerves of steel. At no point during the four days has he been below 29th place. It is very commendable. Today he started with three birdies in the first four holes and it seemed like he had finished the job, although he then had to endure some struggles. From there, he had four bogeys and only one birdie in the next eight holes. However, a magnificent 15th hole (par 5), reaching the green in two and securing an easy birdie, ultimately smoothed his path.
Last week he already took a giant step in Denmark by finishing in second place and today he has completed the task. His brother Nicolai was in Italy and he has earned a spot in New York. It remains to be seen if his brother will also join him at Bethpage. Let’s remember that Rasmus has combined the PGA Tour with the DP World Tour this year and, although he hasn’t won, he has been very solid, making the cut in all four Majors, for example. Another key was the end of 2024 he had. He won the Irish Open, finished second in the DP World Tour Championship, third in the British Masters, and fourth in Sotogrande.
