Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Thomas Pieters reportedly favored to be European Ryder Cup captain’s picks

With five Ryder Cup rookies among Europe’s nine automatic qualifying spots, it wouldn’t shock many to see Darren Clarke opt for at least one or two experienced players when he announces his captain’s selections for Hazeltine later this week.

A report from Golf Digest’s Brian Wacker suggests Clarke is favoring an all-veteran slate of picks while leaving some younger stars with far more deserving recent résumés at home. The Northern Irish captain is said to be eyeing three former World No. 1s in Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald as his three additions to the European roster.

It’s hard make any argument about keeping Kaymer off the European roster before. He’s a fairly young, two-time major champion and former Ryder Cup hero that spent much of this points cycle rebuilding his swing, but six top-10s since the Masters would seem to indicate he’s regained some of that form. The case for Westwood isn’t as much of a slam dunk given his age and form, but it’d be hard to make the case his inclusion on the squad would be an egregious error.

But the selection of Donald over younger players like Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters is a head-scratcher -- and one that should leave some wondering about the fairness of the European qualification process. Donald hasn’t won a golf tournament since 2013, and outside of a couple second-place finishes at lesser PGA Tour events, he’s been mostly an afterthought internationally over the past couple of seasons.

Playing on the same PGA Tour as Donald, Knox has emerged as one of the world’s top 20 players in the past year. He’s won twice on the 2015-16 PGA Tour schedule, one of those being a WGC event and the other coming this month at the Travelers. He’s the sixth-highest European in the OWGR, seventh in the FedEx Cup standings, and he’d already be on the squad if it weren’t for a technicality about when his European Tour card was established and when his points started counting in the European qualifying system that some would say favors those that play on the European Tour. His omission will only re-ignite those talking points.

If you’re into stocking your team with who’s playing the best golf at the current moment, Pieters should be the first player named to the European roster -- and he might even be the best player in the world at this very single second. He’s a disastrous Saturday at the Olympics and a clutch Paul Peterson putt from having three straight wins after taking home the title at the Euro Tour stop in Denmark this past week. The former University of Illinois star has fourth-, second- and first-place finishes to show for starts in Brazil, the Czech Republic and Denmark over the last three weeks. It’s difficult to maintain your form in that manner with that kind of trans-Atlantic travel, and it speaks to where Pieters’ game and confidence must be to keep his run of good form rolling.

But, for now, it looks as if Clarke will opt for experience to complement what might be an already fairly stacked European roster that will count Open Champion Henrik Stenson, Olympic gold medalist Justin Rose, Masters champ Danny Willett, in-form Ryder Cup dynamo Sergio Garcia and some guy named Rory McIlroy among its leaders.

Hazeltine’s set to be pretty fun -- especially if you’re an European golf fan.

The original report has been walked back -- and now it seems Pieters, not Donald, will be tapped for the roster.

As explained above, Pieters is the far more deserving player to make the roster recently and his length would undoubtedly be an asset at Hazeltine. There’s a chance we’ll have a few more reports like this before Clarke announces some time over the next 24 hours.