Sergio Garcia set to be picked for Ryder Cup team

Sergio Garcia WILL get a pick for the European Ryder Cup this afternoon, bunkered.co.uk understands.

Multiple well-placed sources have told us that Thomas Bjorn will choose the Spaniard, along with Henrik Stenson and English duo Ian Poulter and Paul Casey when he announces his four wild cards for this month’s match this afternoon.

The announcement will be made live on Sky Sports Golf at 2pm.

This will come as a bitter blow to a number of candidates vying for one of Bjorn’s four spots, not least Matt Wallace and Rafa Cabrera Bello.

• Does this spell bad news for Matt Wallace’s Ryder Cup prospects?

• “I’m making it tough not to pick me” says Ryder Cup hopeful

Englishman Wallace has won three times on the European Tour this season, including last weekend’s Made In Denmark. Despite that, he looks set to become the first player since Johan Edfors in 2006 to win a hat-trick of European Tour titles in a Ryder Cup year and miss out on the team. Incidentally, Wallace has played in more regular European Tour events this year than the four anticipated picks combined.

Cabrera Bello, meantime, finished in a tie for seventh in the Dell Technologies Championship on Monday – his fifth top ten on the PGA Tour this season and which would have propelled him automatically onto the team had qualifying not ended 24 hours earlier. In spite of that, and an impressive Ryder Cup debut in 2016, the Spaniard, above, appears almost certain to be overlooked by Bjorn.

• Jim Furyk announces first three of his four US picks for Ryder Cup

It is in the inclusion of Cabrera Bello’s compatriot Garcia that will raise the most eyebrows. The 38-year-old hasn’t played since finishing in a tie for 24th at the Wyndham Championship. That was the 2017 Masters champion’s best finish of the season on the PGA Tour. He had missed the cut in eight of his ten prior events on golf’s most lucrative circuit and failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time since the end-of-season showpiece was introduced in 2007.

• How did Thomas Bjorn react to being overlooked for a pick in 2006? Not well…

• IN DETAIL – A look at the American team for the 2018 Ryder Cup

He has fared marginally better in Europe, where he is currently 39th on the Race To Dubai – he has only finished the season outside the top 40 on the order of merit three times – and has posted three top tens. The most recent of those was a tie for eighth at the French Open at Le Golf National… host venue for this month’s Ryder Cup.

It is believed that Bjorn is prepared to overlook Garcia’s recent poor form and decision to sit out the final two European qualifying events – the Czech Masters and Made In Denmark – in order to add some experience to a European side that already contains five rookies.