Austrian golf star Sepp Straka plays for the European team

Seb Straka has been rewarded with a long-awaited Ryder Cup nomination for his stellar golf season. The 30-year-old is only the second Austrian to compete in the prestigious comparison of the best twelve players from Europe and the USA. Bernd Fisberger will debut the red-white-red Ryder Cup in 2021. The 44th edition of the biennial event will take place from September 29 to October 1 at the Marco Simone Club near Rome.

Europe captain Luke awarded Donald Straka one of the six outstanding tickets. “I feel proud and happy to be there,” the Austrian said in his first reaction during the Captain’s Pick live broadcast. “The goal of the season was definitely to get into the team. Luckily, I kept my form over the summer.”

In addition, the 45-year-old Donald nominated his English compatriots Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, as well as Irish Shane Lowry, Denmark’s Nikolai Hoggard and Sweden’s Ludwig Aberg. Stars John Rahm (ESP), Rory McIlroy (NIR) and PGA finalist Victor Hovland (NOR) as well as Tyrell Hutton (Eng), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng) and Robert McIntyre (SCO) qualified through the ranking lists.

With the Ryder Cup ticket, Straka’s career goal becomes a reality. “It’s the biggest tournament you can participate in. It’s everyone’s dream. When you’re a kid, you always make that shot either to win the Masters or the Ryder Cup,” the ÖGV athlete emphasized the enormous importance of the tournament to him in an APA interview for a few months.

Fourteenth place in the final round

The Viennese, who lives in the USA, has definitely come to terms with this year, among other things, with his second success in the PGA Championship and a sensational second place in the British Open, the best major result for an Austrian. Most recently, as in the previous year, he competed in the PGA Tour Top 30 Finals, in which he finished 14th. At No. 23 in the world rankings, Straka is currently the seventh-best European player.

Donald praised Straka’s participation earlier this year in the Champions Trophy, a comparison between Continental European golfers and the British and Irish. “He flew all the way from Hawaii to Abu Dhabi for this. I saw how much he liked the team environment. He’s really done that and he’s been in great shape lately.” Overall, the European captain was satisfied with his golf game. “It’s a combination of great talent and I want to put them in a position to win.”

The US team was introduced a week ago. Ryder Cup captain Zack Johnson distributed his six tickets to PGA Championship winners Brooks Koepka, Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Colin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. World No. 1 Scotty Scheffler as well as US Open winner Windham Clarke and British Open champion Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homma and Xander Schoevel have already been identified as consistent starters through various seedings.

Apparently, the American golfers at Koehler/Wisconsin won the last comparison two years ago by a ratio of 19:9.