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Let’s start with the premise that 11 players on the European Ryder Cup team are locked in. You may disagree but hold that thought for just a moment. These are the 11 that, at least for me, are all but certain:
Rory McIlroy Robert MacIntyre Tommy Fleetwood Tyrrell Hatton Shane Lowry Sepp Straka Justin Rose Ludvig Aberg Viktor Hovland Matt Fitzpatrick Jon Rahm
Now, can you make an argument that maybe Rose isn’t 100 percent certain, even though he’s a steady veteran presence and just had a great stretch at the Scottish and Open Championship? Sure. Can you argue that Matt Fitzpatrick’s resurgence in the past two months is a little late? I guess. Both arguments seem extremely thin, but it’s also true that we don’t know Luke Donald’s mind.
For the purposes of this, though, we’re going to treat those 11 players as sure things, which means that the last remaining bit of drama when it comes to European team selection is that mysterious 12th man.
Coming into this week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard were two of the obvious candidates. The case for Rasmus is that he’s currently seventh in the standings, just outside the automatic qualification cut-off, and normally you’d think chances were pretty good with a position that high. The problem is that the bulk of the points that got him there came last year or very very early in 2025, with a win at the Irish Open and a second place at the DP World Tour Championship. Since that finish, he hasn’t had a top-10 in 2025 in 17 tries, and his only top 20 came at the Open Championship. Despite the solid showing at Portrush last month, he’s not peaking at the right time.
The case for Nicolai is … well, take a second look at those 11 names above. What do you notice? Every single one of them was on the team in Rome, and so was Nicolai. He was the only player who didn’t win a match, but they liked his skill set and he blended well with the team, so there may be some appeal in rolling into Bethpage with the exact same squad. He’s also been a hair better than his brother recently, with a T-4 finish at the Scottish and the same T-16 at the Open.
Nicolai Hojgaard during the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome. Mondadori Portfolio
Both of them came into the Wyndham Championship outside the top 70 cutoff for making the tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs—Nicolai just outside at 71, and Rasmus not far behind at 82—and in order to impress Donald and take the inside track on the final pick, it seemed like they’d have to get into those playoffs and perform well starting next week in Memphis.
Instead, after narrowly making the cut on the number, both of them stumbled on Saturday—a 70 for Rasmus, a 69 for Nicolai. Not terrible scores, of course, but not enough to keep pace. As their rounds Sunday came to an end, with Rasmus at 6 under and Nicoli at three under, it was clear that neither of them would make the playoffs.
And what about their competition? Thomas Detry, 12th on the Ryder Cup points list, missed the cut, but he’ll qualify for the playoffs. Matt Wallace, 11th on the points list, bettered them at eight under, but will not make the playoffs. Aaron Rai, a dark horse at 16th in the standings, played a brilliant first two rounds, but got stuck in neutral on the weekend and is fighting for a top-10 finish. He, too, will make the playoffs.
For both Hojgaards and Matt Wallace, the only way left to make their claim on the course is to play in one of the three events remaining on the DP World tour—the Nexo Championship in Scotland, the Danish Golf Championship in their home country, and the British Masters. (It appears none of them will play this coming week in Scotland.)
And then there’s Sergio Garcia. Europe’s all-time points leader is the figure lurking behind the curtain, and he’s had recent discussions with Donald about the possibility of playing on the team. With Hatton and Rahm set to make the squad, his participation in LIV Golf is arguably not the issue it might have been once upon a time, and it feels like the longer none of the other contenders distinguish themselves, the more powerful he becomes.
There’s still plenty of time left, and plenty can change, but it felt like the Hojgaards needed to play their way into the playoffs to stay on steady ground and contend for the 12th spot. For neither to do so seems like a huge blow to their Ryder Cup dreams.
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Main Image: Jonathan Bachman
