Paul McGinley leaves Luke Donald off European Ryder Cup team, picks Lee Westwood

The European side is all set for the home Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

Paul McGinley rounded out the roster on Tuesday morning and announced his captain’s picks as Ian Poulter, Stephen Gallacher, and Lee Westwood. The most intrigue and debate surrounded the third and final spot, which became a toss-up between Westwood and another English mainstay on these teams, Luke Donald. Both Donald and Westwood have been fixtures and leaders on several successful European teams, but the play of some new faces -- namely Gallacher, Victor Dubuisson, and Jamie Donaldson -- made it difficult to squeeze some of these Europe regulars into the 12-man roster.

Westwood has played in every single Ryder Cup since 1997, by far the most experienced player from across the pond. He’s got an 18-13-6 overall record and will again be a leader for the Europe side, with veterans like Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose.

Gallacher targeted a Ryder Cup spot from the start of the year, hoping to play his way onto the loaded team for an event in his native Scotland. It started early with that Dubai Desert Classic win, where he played as the third wheel in a group with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods and outpaced both to get his second straight win there. He came up one shot short of automatically qualifying on points, finishing in third at the Italian Open. A top two result would have bumped Graeme McDowell out of the 9th automatic points spot. That finish, a 3rd place preceded by a T7 the week before, sealed his spot.

Poulter was always going to make the team. He’s had an underwhelming season on the PGA Tour, but that didn’t matter. Unless injured or completely lost, he’s always going to be on team Europe. As a captain’s pick in 2012, he steamrolled through the American side in all formats and with different partners in the two-man games. His 4-0 record there bumped his overall record to 12-3. That record, and his repeated success at the WGC Match Play event make him the most feared match play golfer in the world. He was always going to get a spot.

Donald is obviously the biggest omission. He’s a former No. 1 player in the world and also has an incredible record of success as a European veteran. But there was just too much talent and too many impressive records to choose from for McGinley. He probably could have fielded two teams, 24 men deep, that each would have been competitive with Tom Watson’s US side. McGinley, who played with Donald in his first ever Ryder Cup match 10 years ago, said Donald was still surprised to get the call that he was out, saying he was “very, very disappointined.”

Francesco Molinari, another former Ryder Cupper for Europe, came close on points and was another player up for strong consideration for a captain’s pick. McGinley called both Donald and Molinari to give them the bad news, and also called Bernhard Langer, the senior star who was a longshot, out of respect.

There are only three spots left for the 2014 Ryder Cup in Gleneagles, and Tom Watson will fill out his roster with his captain’s picks on Tuesday night. The announcement is expected around 7 p.m. from the “Saturday Night Live” studio 8H in New York. Here’s a breakdown of some of the options Watson has for his three picks.

And here are the rosters as they stand Tuesday morning: