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On September 29, it will be almost a quarter of a century since Castellón native Sergio García, the player with the most points in history, will not be part of the European Ryder Cup team. The Castellón native, who debuted in the 1999 edition in Boston and since then he has not left the team train more than once, in 2010 at Celtic Manor in Wales and was vice-captain with Colin Montgomerie, he joined the LIV Golf circuit backed by Saudi Arabia, and he knew what that entailed.
Luke Donald, statements
However, when European captain Luke Donald called him recently to tell him that he would not choose him for this year's edition in Rome, neither as a player nor as one of his five vice-captains, the Englishman said that "we chatted a little and from "Then he understood it and wished the team the best.
It will be the first Ryder Cup in which he participates without Sergio. He accepts it and supported me greatly when I spoke with him a few weeks ago," Donald added. García has played 10 Ryder Cups from 1999 to 2021 and holds the record for most points scored (28.5).
The one from Borriol did not compete in the 2010 Ryder Cup, as we have said, when he took a break after a bad streak. But he was named vice-captain for the Celtic Manor event. With Europe having been badly beaten by the United States in 2021, Donald chose three rookies for his team heading into Rome: Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Aberg, 23, has been a professional for three months, but the former amateur No. 1 won the European Masters a day before Donald announced his team. "We have known Ludvig for a long time and he is already fitting in very well with the team," Donald noted.
Another player is Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who won the BMW Championship and the FedEx Cup title last month. "Big wins," Donald said. "We have four of the last six FedEx Cup winners on our team. They are positive aspects that I will talk to the boys about to encourage them.
But we will not take the United States lightly. They are a very strong team and we are still hurt by what happened two years ago," he added. Between No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 3 Jon Rahm and No. 4 Hovland, Europe has three of the top four players in the world rankings. "We have twelve very good players, really," Donald said. "I'm very happy with all of them," he said.