Lee Westwood thinks Ryder Cup should go ahead “if possible”

If it can be played, it should be played.

That’s Lee Westwood’s position on the 2020 Ryder Cup.

Officially, this year’s match remains on track to take place at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from September 25-27. That’s despite reports in the media challenging that position and suggesting that a postponement until 2021 is imminent as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey are among those to have called for the contest to be deferred on account of the chaos caused by the outbreak and, in particular, the impact it has had on qualifying for the European and American teams.

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That has prompted Europe’s captain Padraig Harrington to put forward an alternative: abandon qualifying and, instead, leave it to he and his American counterpart Steve Stricker to pick the teams entirely.

Speaking to bunkered.co.uk, Westwood, a veteran of ten matches to date, outlined his position.

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“I think if it can be played it should be played, definitely,” said the 46-year-old. “Then you cross the bridge with all the other things when you get to them. I don’t think any decisions should be made right now, though, because it’s so far away.”

Asked if he could imagine having the teams comprised solely of picks and abandoning qualifying, he added: “Yeah, I could. To be honest, I don’t think the picks would be far off what the teams are right now. There are three or four picks they’re going to have anyway so I wouldn’t think it would change things that much.”

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Westwood currently occupies one of the nine automatic qualification spots for this year’s side. He’s one appearance short of equalling Sir Nick Faldo’s record of 11 appearances for Europe.

This year, captain Harrington has opted to give himself three picks, with the remainder of his team comprising four automatic qualifiers from a European Points List and five automatic qualifiers from a World Points List.

As it stands – Team Europe

IN

Tommy Fleetwood
Jon Rahm
Rory McIlroy
Victor Perez*
Tyrrell Hatton
Danny Willett
Matt Fitzpatrick
Lee Westwood
Bernd Wiesberger* 

ON THE FRINGES

Graeme McDowell
Henrik Stenson
Matthias Schwab*
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Shane Lowry*
Marcus Kinhult*
Robert MacIntyre*
Paul Waring* 

* denotes rookie