LIV Golf pro among six who will battle it out for final European Ryder Cup spot
Scotland's Bob MacIntyre strengthened his hold on the final Ryder Cup spot on the European points list but there are five more who could snatch it from him.
Luke Donald's sleepless nights look set to continue after a host of Ryder Cup hopefuls put on impressive displays at the Czech Masters.
Todd Clements claimed his maiden DP World Tour win at the Albatross Golf Resort in Prague after finishing on 22-under, one clear of England's Matt Wallace.
Clements posted a flawless bogey-free 9-under 63 on Sunday which the Challenge Tour graduate described as the greatest round of his life.
Scotland's Bob MacIntyre strengthened his hold on the remaining automatic Ryder Cup spot available on the European points list.
Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland have already booked their spots on the European team via the world points list.
Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Sepp Straka are chasing a spot via the world points list.
MacIntyre finished T-4 on 17-under in a group that included young Swede Ludvig Aberg and German Yannik Paul.
The Scot was 90 points clear of the German in the Ryder Cup points race before play began in last week's ISPS Handa World Invitational.
Paul, curiously, decided to skip the event.
His agent later told Telegraph Sport the tour pro is trying to manage his schedule given there is also a PGA Tour card on the line.
Aberg has only been playing professionally for three months but is already highly thought of by the European skipper.
Donald asked to play with him at the PGA Tour's event in Detroit a few months ago and was impressed by what he saw.
Aberg is still odds-on to receive a captain's pick.
Nicolai Hojgaard also impressed this week, finishing third on 18-under. But it is his brother Rasmus who has a chance of qualifying automatically.
Rasmus finished 39th here on 10-under after posting rounds of 70, 70, 70, 68. He'll tee it up at next week's European Masters.
Feature: Why is Ludvig Aberg ODDS-ON to make Luke Donald's European Ryder Cup team?!
Elsewhere, Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen also posted a good finish alongside another European Ryder Cup hopeful, Frenchman Victor Perez.
The duo both finished on 15-under.
Watch Clement's reaction to his first win:
The moment @golfclements found out he joined the winners circle on Tour #CzechMasters pic.twitter.com/TZgEM9oIZ2
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 27, 2023
What this all means is that, per VC606, five players will now battle it out with MacIntyre for the final spot before Donald and his team of vice-captains make six picks.
Those are:
- Yannik Paul
- Adrian Meronk
- Victor Perez
- Rasmus Hojgaard
- Adrian Otaegui (who has paid a £240,00 fine for playing LIV events)
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Ben joined GolfMagic as Content Executive in September 2021 just before the Ryder Cup and has contributed significantly to the growth of the site. Ben now assumes our Content Manager role, specialising in PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf content.
