Padraig Harrington has warned potential members of his European Ryder Cup team there will be”no excuses” for playing at the BMW PGA Championship next year.
Qualifying to the group starts this week and ends at Wentworth next September, soon before Harrington takes his side to defend the Ryder Cup against the Team USA of Steve Stricker.
Harrington is thrilled to see a stellar field teeing it up at the West Course this week, headlined by Rory McIlroy, and he’s intent on watching more of the exact same a year from now when rankings on his group for Wisconsin are very most likely to still be decided.
“This really is a massive part of why it is starting this week and it’s finishing in the BMW PGA Championship,” said Harrington, shortly after unveiling Robert Karlsson because his primary assistant captain. “This will be the flagship event in Europe along with the players develop and take it.
“That is our largest European event, it’s the one you are interested in being there. You’re sure to get a field, which isn’t only important this season, but it’s going to be important come this time that we have the players playing with with the last event.
“If there are places still to be determined, each player will be going up against other very great players who week and there will not be any excuses. You ca turnaround and say,’well, I don’t want to return to the event; it’s not enough’.
“This ultimately will lead to no explanations following year, as everybody will be here who wants to get on the team. And it is a nice golf course now, it is. They have made the advancements and everybody loves it and it is a real good golf program and it will create fine play, which is precisely the kind of golf course we’ll be analyzing the players on.”
Harrington also highlighted the significance of getting rookies on the team, with the likes of Open champion Shane Lowry and Matt Wallace among those likely to make their own Ryder Cup debuts.
“We need rookies,” Harrington added. “How do you acquire the buzz and atmosphere on the group? You need men there simply thrilled to be eager and there, and the older men get the capacity manage and to help a participant. That’s the beauty of this Ryder Cup, to possess rookies on the group.
“Certainly you would not wish to go in there together with 12 rookies and if two rookies qualify, I will be choosing three seasoned men. We will not be heading in with 12 rookies, because it has been really made by the rookies for Europe through recent years, but you would like a great mix.
“Those are the men that come out and they glow. I’m hoping for a wonderful balance on the group, and anything I get, the two men who qualify will deserve to be there, and it is my job to choose three men to balance them out, and then it’s myself, Robert and another vice-captains’ jobs to get the maximum out of them when we are there throughout the week.”

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