VIRGINIA WATER, England — Robert MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton have secured automatic qualification to Europe’s Ryder Cup team for next month’s matches at Bethpage Black, leaving just one guaranteed place up for grabs.
Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood were already sure to be on the team, so captain Luke Donald knows five of his players for the defense of the cup on Sept. 26-28 .
The sixth and final automatic spot will go to Shane Lowry or Rasmus Hojgaard .
Lowry occupies No. 6 place in Europe’s points list but could be overtaken by Hojgaard, who has one event left in qualifying — the British Masters starting Thursday. Hojgaard needs to finish in a two-way tie for 29th or better to guarantee his place on the team.
Lowry does not have another qualification event.
Donald will then have six captain’s picks to complete his team.
“Two great characters and golfers back on Team Europe,” Donald posted on X on Monday about MacIntyre and Hatton. “Team is shaping up nicely.”
MacIntyre finished second to Scottie Scheffler at the BMW Championship on Sunday and moved into second place in the Ryder Cup rankings for Europe. It will be the Scot’s second Ryder Cup appearance. He was part of the winning team at the Marco Simone club outside Rome in 2023.
Donald will announce his six captain’s picks on Sept. 1. Those currently outside the qualifying spots, in addition to Hojgaard, are Sepp Straka, Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland, Matt Wallace, Matt Fizpatrick, Thomas Detry and Marco Penge.
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