Darren Clarke: I’d Have Picked Shane Lowry For Ryder Cup Too

on September 22, 2023 at 11:46 am

There was a lot of disagreement over Luke Donald’s Captain’s Picks but Shane Lowry’s inclusion was the right call according to Darren Clarke.

Clarke was of course the 2016 European Ryder Cup Captain and also served as vice captain on three occasions so it’s fair to say that he knows a thing or two when it comes to the Ryder Cup and Captain’s Picks.

The 2011 Open Champion has given his vote of confidence to 2023 Team Europe Captain Luke Donald, commending his attention to detail.

Clarke went on to explain the qualities that Shane Lowry brings to Team Europe that make him deserving of inclusion and later recounts what it was like being a part of the famous ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012.

Clarke On Luke Donald As Captain

Luke will be meticulous. Everything he has done to try and get the best out of his team from stats to analytics.

He will have thought of every scenario and will have put a plan in place that he can deal with.

Lowry Deserving of Captain’s Pick

Adrian Meronk was the big talking point as was Shane Lowry. I finished 12th in the qualifying when Nick Faldo was captain in 2008 and he didn’t pick me. While it was disappointing, if you don’t qualify for the Ryder Cup, you are picked at the discretion of the captain who decides who is going to compliment the team better.

Nick picked Poults and Paul Casey because he thought that would help the team better. While that was disappointing, I understood that that’s the captain’s decision to pick who they want to pick. The same thing has happened with Adrian Meronk but if he wanted to be picked, he had to qualify by right. I understand why he’s disappointed but you have to qualify for the team.

People have mentioned Shane’s inclusion. With Shane, he’s a major champion and will bring everything to that team room. You need that experience.

Luke has four rookies in his team, did he need to have five rookies on the team? It’s a big step for a rookie.

If I had been captain, not because he’s Irish, I would have Shane Lowry in my team.

At the expense of who? I’m not sure but I would have picked him. His stats this year have been really good. Whilst professional golf is fickle by nature because the margins are tiny, so Shane from a stats point of view has been playing really well.

It was great to see him turn up and play as well as he did at a couple of events like the Irish Open and at Wentworth. The criticism of Shane is totally unjustified because he’s a huge addition to the team.

With Luke and his six picks, if he wins, he’s a genius but if he loses he’s not. Those picks are open to people’s interpretation.

You’re always going to have keyboard warriors who think they know best but Luke Donald has picked the six best players he thinks will give Europe the best chance of winning and you have to respect that decision.

Clarke Recounts The ‘Miracle at Medinah’

The best moment was José María’s reaction when they won. He did it for Seve.

His reactions and emotions said it all. It meant so much to everyone involved, players and vice-captains. José Marià is a caring and genuine sort of guy. His emotions came out, everyone was so happy for him.

What the guys did on that Sunday and what Poults did on the Saturday evening, to get us back within a chance and for that belief to carry on. The Ryder Cup comes down to belief at the end of the day. Whether you truly believe it or not is the difference between success and failure. Those guys on Sunday truly believed they still had a chance.

Poults raised everybody’s hopes and possibilities by what he did on that Saturday afternoon. The guys felt as though they had shifted the momentum rather than feeling down because they were so many points behind.