European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley selected Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood as his three captains picks on Tuesday morning.
This will be the first Ryder Cup for Gallacher. Poulter has played in four Ryder Cups, including the last three. Westwood is the most senior member of the group as this will mark his ninth consecutive Ryder Cup.
Gallacher, who's uncle Bernhard Gallacher played in eight Ryder Cups, needed a second-place finish or better last weekend at the Italian Open. He narrowly missed out as he finished third for his eighth top-10 of the season.
The Scotsman won his second straight Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year and was runner-up at the Nordea Masters. Gallacher has lost in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship each of the last two years and lost his only two matches at the 2013 Volvo World Match Play Championship.
Poulter has been a stalwart in the Ryder Cup, but he has also won the WGC- Accenture Match Play Championship and the Volvo World Match Play Championship. He was a bright spot in Europe's loss in 2008, going 4-1.
The Englishman followed with a 3-1 mark at the 2010 Ryder Cup. As a captains pick in 2012, Poulter went 4-0 and his singles win over Webb Simpson tied the matches at 10-10, after the U.S. led 10-6 entering the singles session.
Westwood has posted an 18-13-6 record in the last eight Ryder Cups. Following a tie for seventh at the Masters earlier this year, Westwood won the Malaysian Open. His only other top-10 this season was a tie for sixth at the Players Championship.
The 40-year-old is just 3-5 in singles, but is 7-4-4 in foursomes and 8-4-2 in fourball action.
Among those passed over for selection was four-time Ryder Cup performers Luke Donald and Miguel Angel Jimenez, as well as Francesco Molinari, who has competed in the last two Ryder Cups for Europe.
McGinley also noted that he considered Bernhard Langer, the captain of the winning 2004 European team and a 10-time performer in the Ryder Cup. Langer has won five times on the Champions Tour this season, including two major championships.
Europe rallied for a 14 1/2 - 13 1/2 victory at Medinah in 2012. That was their second straight Ryder Cup victory, and fifth win in the last six Cups. The last United States victory in Europe was back in 1993, when Tom Watson led the U.S. to a 15-13 victory over Bernhard Gallacher's team.
Watson will once again lead the U.S. team this year, and he will make his picks later Tuesday.
This year's Ryder Cup will take place at Gleneagles in Scotland from September 26-28.
[SportsNetwork.com]
