Danny Willett targets Ryder Cup return after Wentworth win

No sooner had he bagged the seventh European Tour victory of his career than Danny Willett’s mind was already drifting towards next year’s Ryder Cup.

And well it might.

The Englishman’s victory at Wentworth came in the very first week of qualification to make Padraig Harrington’s European team for the clash at Whistling Straits.

After holding off Jon Rahm to seal an impressive victory in the European Tour’s flagship event, 31-year-old Willett mapped out his determination to get back into the Ryder Cup fold.

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“Any tournament win is amazing, but that’s now my seventh win on tour
and every single time I’ve won, they have been pretty stellar events
against pretty stellar fields,” he said. “The Ryder Cup stuff,
yeah, it’s the first event of what, 40-odd, whatever it’s going to be,
in a year’s time when it’s back in America.

“It’s
always nice and obviously there are going to be a lot of questions
around that. I might be the guy that plays every Ryder Cup away from
home, which will be great fun for me.”

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Willett’s only appearance in the match to date came at Hazeltine National in 2016 but it was largely overshadowed by an offensive article written by his brother, which was published in the week of the match.

He subsequently lost all three of the matches he played as Darren Clarke’s European team feel to a first defeat in the match since 2008.

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Willett’s win at Wentworth continues his upward climb on the world rankings and it’s fair to say it went a lot better than his most recent visit to the course in it’s old May slot last year.

“The Thursday before Wentworth last year I had a vasectomy, and I was in a
lot of pain,” he revealed. “I didn’t want to pull out. It was the only time I could get it in; I had a busy schedule. And it was painful to walk but I didn’t want any more kids, so it was something I was willing to sacrifice.