Luke Donald Leaves The Italian Open Winner Out Of His Ryder Cup Team... Was It A Risk Worth Taking?

Luke Donald named his six European Ryder Cup wildcards and there was one glowing omission.

Donald began naming his wildcards, starting with Fleetwood, then Straka, then Rose, then Lowry. From there, the picks looked like they would be Adrian Meronk and then Ludvig Aberg.

Donald's voice appeared to crack a little as he named Nicolai Hojgaard before European Masters champion Aberg coming out as the final pick.

It's a hugely bold call for Donald, who realistically had 13 or 14 names for his 12 spots. US captain Zach Johnson boldly left out Keegan Bradley last week, but there were at least 15 or 16 names in genuine contention for Team USA.

The final spot on Team Europe, it appears, came down to just two men and not picking Adrian Meronk is a huge call from the European captain.

Adrian Meronk won the Italian Open earlier this year on the Ryder Cup course as well as last year's Irish and Australian Opens, with the tall Pole currently sat at 51st in the world.

He is the tenth-highest European in the world rankings and is higher ranked than Robert MacIntyre, Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg - all of whom are on the side.

Meronk looked like he'd be on the team all year. So, why didn't he get one of the six picks?

Donald stressed that he wanted good form while announcing his picks, and Meronk has decent form - just look at the Race to Dubai rankings.

The 30-year-old is 3rd in the R2D standings, only behind Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm. 

Is he not a good fit for the course? That can hardly be argued as he won the Italian Open there just three months ago with a score of 13-under-par.

Leaving Meronk out is arguably the most controversial wildcard pick of all 12 including Zach Johnson's for Team USA.

It appears that Donald just prefers Nicolai Hojgaard.

Perhaps when you dig deep into the stats, Hojgaard's numbers come out better than Meronk's and the potential partnerships work better. Donald couldn't overlook any of Fleetwood, Lowry, Rose, Straka or Aberg so it must have been a Hojgaard vs Meronk situation.

Nicolai Hojgaard also has a win at Marco Simone, coming two years ago, and was T5th there this year. He has two DP World Tour wins to his name and currently ranks 2nd in Stroke Average on the DP World Tour and 8th in Greens in Regulation.

He's a superb ball striker and a brilliant driver of the ball, too. He has plenty of PGA Tour experience under his belt now as well, and his last two weeks of 3rd in the Czech Republic and T5th in Switzerland will have rubber stamped his spot.

Perhaps Donald has wanted Nicolai on the team for months and assumed that he would have room for Meronk, but then Ludvig Aberg turned pro and impressed the captain with how fast he took to the paid ranks, ultimately winning in Switzerland.

The harsh reality for Meronk is that if there were 13 players on the team, he'd almost certainly be there. At the end of the day, though, he can't complain as he didn't take one of the automatic qualification spots.

Those are the only guaranteed ways of making the side.

Will Donald live to regret not picking Meronk? Hopefully not. He has a superb team of 12 for Rome, with stats guru Edoardo Molinari surely guiding him with all the data he needs for potential partnerships.

Meronk will take one of the ten PGA Tour cards offered to the top finishers on the DP World Tour and hopefully build from what would have been a tough call to receive from the captain.