European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn finalized his team on Wednesday announcing Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson as his four wild-card selections.
This quartet joins the eight European qualifiers: Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren and Thorbjorn Olesen.
“If I had written down 12 names before I started my captaincy journey, it wouldn’t have been far away from this,” Bjorn said.
| Captain’s picks | Previous appearances | Overall record | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
| Ian Poulter | 5 | 12-4-2 | 4-0-1 | 4-1-0 | 4-3-1 |
| Sergio Garcia | 8 | 19-11-7 | 3-4-1 | 9-3-3 | 7-4-3 |
| Henrik Stenson | 4 | 7-7-2 | 2-2-0 | 2-3-1 | 3-2-1 |
| Paul Casey | 3 | 3-2-4 | 1-1-1 | 1-1-0 | 1-0-3 |
The pick that will likely receive the most scrutiny is that of Garcia, who missed the cut in all four majors this year and failed to even qualify for the PGA Tour’s postseason. But Bjorn offered high praise for the Spaniard, saying that Garcia is “everything that European Ryder Cup is all about.”
“The one thing about Sergio is that he’s the heartbeat of the team,” Bjorn said. “I’ve always said this about him. It’s like a football team going without their captain, that’s what he is.”
Bjorn’s announcement comes one day after U.S. captain Jim Furyk made three of his four picks, which included Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.
While the European team is complete, Furyk will make a final selection the Monday after this week’s BMW Championship.
The Ryder Cup is scheduled for Sept. 28-30 at Le Golf National outside Paris, France.