Key trio’s absence won’t hurt Europe’s Ryder Cup hopes, says Paul Azinger
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Lee Westwood is part of the trio who are part of LIV Golf and have resigned from the DP World Tour.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LOS ANGELES – Europe will be “unfazed” by the absence of Ryder Cup stalwarts Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood when the biennial competition gets under way next week, golf analyst Paul Azinger said on Thursday.
The trio have played a combined 28 Ryder Cups but are part of LIV Golf and have resigned from the DP World Tour, which made them ineligible to play the Sept 29-Oct 1 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome.
But despite not having any them on Luke Donald’s 12-player team or serving as one of five vice-captains, former US captain Azinger does not expect their absences to hurt the Europeans in their bid to reclaim the trophy they lost at Whistling Straights in 2021.
“First of all, I think that the team dynamic and the team environment in the European room will be unfazed,” Azinger said on an NBC Sports Ryder Cup media conference call.
“The team atmosphere in that locker room will be every bit as good, if not better, and it will be right and ready to go. Those guys, they are on a mission.”
Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion, is the Ryder Cup’s record points scorer with 28.5, while Westwood has played in a European joint-record 11 Cups, being part of seven winning teams. Poulter has been a key figure in some of Europe’s biggest successes.
Fellow NBC Sports golf analyst Curt Byrum echoed Azinger’s comments.
“All they are going to be talking about in the team rooms is about the players that are there and rallying around everybody that’s in that team room. They are not even going to be talking about who’s not there. Both sides will carry on like that,” said Byrum.
In other news, the PGA Tour announced on Thursday that it will open the 2024 season at the Plantation Course at Kapalua on Maui as scheduled, five months after wildfires devastated the island.
The Sentry, previously called the Sentry Tournament of Champions, will be played on Jan 4-7 and serve as a signature event open to the top 50 from the 2022-23 FedExCup standings and any player who won on Tour this season.
There had been questions whether the tournament would have to relocate after the fires in the town of Lahaina, Hawaii, killed at least 97 people and wiped out more than 2,000 structures.
But the Kapalua Resort was not damaged by the fires. One of its courses, the Bay Course, reopened this week. The Plantation Course is scheduled to reopen in mid-October. REUTERS, AFP
