The joy of six: The Ryder Cup controversy that proved to be a stroke of genius

So there we have it. We now know our teams for the 2023 Ryder Cup – and there will be more captain’s picks in Rome than there have ever been before. And while I’m looking forward to the competition itself, I’m gutted this part is over.

The fact that Luke Donald and his counterpart Zach Johnson each had six wildcard selections has torn the golfing world apart – in Europe and the United States, at least – especially now it’s resulted in a number of controversial snubs on both sides of the Atlantic.

First of all, why has it been so many? In the captain’s pick era of the Ryder Cup, it was generally just two or three choices for each skipper, which went up to four once Team USA’s now infamous Task Force was set up. But that was upped to six when the Covid pandemic-delayed season of 2020 skewed the qualifying process – and ZJ decided to keep it at that number.

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Donald’s predecessor Padraig Harrington had chopped his number of picks from the four afforded to 2018 captain Thomas Bjorn by one, saying he “didn’t want more than three” because “players should be given the right to qualify” before joking that “giving me six picks would have given me a huge headache!”

The current captain, meanwhile, took a more statistical approach, saying “the changes to the qualification follow in-depth analysis” with help from the team at Ryder Cup Europe as well as then vice-captains Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari.

He added that “the revised overall process removes the need for points multipliers in the last few months of the qualifying period, and the six picks give me flexibility to ensure we have the strongest line-up at Marco Simone in terms of in-form players, players with Ryder Cup experience, and potential pairings”.

And the Englishman stayed true to his word, opting to take “generational talent” Ludvig Aberg over the likes of Yannik Paul – who was on the cusp of qualification via the European Points List – and Adrian Meronk – a three-time winner in the qualification period, including at the Ryder Cup host venue.

It’s a brutal blow for Paul and Meronk in particular. The German would have made every single European team since the introduction of the World Points List/European Points List in 2004 – more on that later – while his Polish rival for that last spot would have made five of the nine in that period.

Now, cards on the table, I was fully on board with those saying six picks is far too many. It’s ludicrous, isn’t it? Players should be in the Ryder Cup on merit, not because they are favoured by the captain and his assistants.

That opinion has been ripped into shreds in the past couple of weeks.

Forget about it making far more sense for captains to be able to, as Donald says, work with more suitable players, more in-form players, and on partnerships – as a fan, how good has this process been?

Has there ever been so much discourse over the Ryder Cup captain’s picks? And I don’t just mean the volume of picks, but the intensity of the discussion. A debate that largely comes and goes has been at a heightened level for, well, months. It has been helped by LIV Golf factor, sure, but throw in the “Boys’ Club” controversy surrounding Captain Johnson’s selection of Justin Thomas, then Donald’s aforementioned head-scratcher, and it’s been about as fun a fortnight I can remember that involves zero balls being hit.

While it’s easy to feel for Paul, you would be hard pushed to find anyone outside of his family who disagrees with the decision to leave him at home over the red-hot Aberg, the experienced Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry, or the popular – and very, very good, by the way – Sepp Straka and Nicolai Hojgaard.

We we will never know how many points Paul or Meronk would have brought home from Rome – and we don’t need to.

This. This is why we watch the Ryder Cup. This is why we watch sport! It’s us against them. Our continent against their’s. Our best 12 versus America’s best 12. We are all desperate to win.

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It will be interesting to see if Donald’s successor – Rose? – opts to stick with six picks ahead of the 2025 showdown at Bethpage. It would be surprising if he doesn’t. Without a ball being struck in Rome, it’s already proved to be the right decision.

Ryder Cup month has started off in the best possible way. Let’s hope it ends in a similar fashion.

Who would have made the team in previous Ryder Cups?

Now let’s nerd out for a few minutes. There have been five variations of the qualifying format since 2004, when the European/World Points List system was introduced – some with the global ranking prioritised and some with the continental roll call on top. So let’s have some fun with it. Here’s how the Class of ’23 would have fared in the Ryder Cups of the last 20 years…

2004, 2006, 2008

5 x World Points List
5 x European Points List
2 x picks

McIlroy (WPL)
Rahm (WPL)
Hovland (WPL)
Hatton (WPL)
Fleetwood (WPL)
MacIntyre (EPL)
Paul (EPL)
Meronk (EPL)
Perez (EPL)
R Hojgaard (EPL)
+ 2 picks

2010

4 x World Points List
5 x European Points List
3 x picks

McIlroy (WPL)
Rahm (WPL)
Hovland (WPL)
Hatton (WPL)
MacIntyre (EPL)
Paul (EPL)
Meronk (EPL)
Perez (EPL)
Fleetwood (EPL)
+ 3 picks

2012

5 x European Points List
5 x World Points List
2 x picks

McIlroy (EPL)
Rahm (EPL)
MacIntyre (EPL)
Paul (EPL)
Meronk (EPL)
Hovland (WPL)
Hatton (WPL)
Fleetwood (WPL)
Fitzpatrick (WPL)
Straka (WPL)
+ 2 picks

2014, 2016, 2021

4 x European Points List
5 x World Points List
3 x picks

McIlroy (EPL)
Rahm (EPL)
MacIntyre (EPL)
Paul (EPL)
Hovland (WPL)
Hatton (WPL)
Fleetwood (WPL)
Fitzpatrick (WPL)
Straka (WPL)
+ 3 picks

2018

4 x European Points List
4 x World Points List
4 x picks

McIlroy (EPL)
Rahm (EPL)
MacIntyre (EPL)
Paul (EPL)
Hovland (WPL)
Hatton (WPL)
Fleetwood (WPL)
Fitzpatrick (WPL)
+ 4 picks

For me, this proves two things. Firstly, Luke Donald has got his team largely nailed on. And secondly, the move to six picks was the right one.

Would you have picked Yannik Paul or Adrian Meronk over any of the players that were picked? Drop me a line and let me know!

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor