Padraig Harrington: “Intuition matters, otherwise we’d have Artificial Intelligence pick the team.”
Before announcing his three wildcard picks at the weekend, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain talked with PlanetSport about the nature of Ryder Cup leadership.
Speaking to Planet Sport ahead of last week's BMW PGA Championship Padraig Harrington pointed to his fellow interviewee Martin Kaymer and said: "When I first brought Martin on-board as a vice-captain he was quite concerned. He thought the modern way is all about data.
"I said, 'That's why I want you, Martin. Data gives us confidence, but our intuition matters, otherwise we'd have Artificial Intelligence pick the team."
Those qualities informed the captaincy's team's decision to pick Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia as the wildcards ahead of Justin Rose.
TEAM EUROPE 🇪🇺👊 pic.twitter.com/QVSBYz7R7x
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 12, 2021
The three picks joining #TeamEurope at Whistling Straits 👊 pic.twitter.com/QUEmnheq0w
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 12, 2021
"So you need folk like that. You also need a player who will ensure that the mood you want is being created. Honestly, if you picked 10, 11 and 12 purely on merit you'd just go to the rankings, but you need a complete picture."
"The consistency and the play of Shane [Lowry] under pressure, under stress, that's what we went with."
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) September 13, 2021
Padraig Harrington explained the tough decision to leave Justin Rose out of his Ryder Cup captain's picks...
Rolex has been committed to the game of golf for over 50 years and has a relationship with the European Tour that began in 1997, and another with the PGA Tour that started in 2007.