Golf star left “shocked and angry” over Ryder Cup snub after tough phone call with Luke Donald
Polish golfer Adrian Meronk has expressed his frustration after being left out of Europe’s Ryder Cup team by captain Luke Donald ahead of the prestigious tournament.
Adrian Meronk claims that being left out of Europe’s Ryder Cup team was a “hard one to swallow” ahead of this year’s event at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome.
The 30-year-old feels hard done by after a year that saw him win his third DP World Tour title in just ten months – following an impressive performance at the Italian Open in May, on the same course the Ryder Cup will be held at the end of September. Meronk also won the Irish Open back in 2022, becoming the first Polish golfer to claim a European Tour win.
The golfer even narrowly missed out on joining the team on his performances with Robert MacIntyre holding on for the last of six automatic spots, Sadly his efforts were not enough for Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald to select him in his 12-man team via his six captain’s picks, which included the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka and Justin Rose.
“It’s been an emotional time for me to be honest, from shock to sadness to anger and now I’m trying to turn it into motivation going into this week,” Meronk said via Bunkered when asked his thoughts on missing out on this year’s team. “Obviously it’s a hard one to swallow, I thought I’d done enough to be on that team.
“I was expecting a call because they told me they were going to call regardless, and I was in quite a good mood, to be honest. I was on the train coming from Switzerland, I’d had a nice finish, and I was in shock.
“I heard from him [Luke Donald] that it was tough for him as well but to be honest when he said I’m not going I kind of stopped listening. He was saying that someone has to stay home, it was close and stuff like that. I wouldn’t want to be in his position, but it was a big shock.”
Revealing how he felt after hearing the news, Meronk added: “On Monday, the first half of the day was just sadness and disbelief and then anger because the last year and a half I spent a lot of time thinking about this and that was my goal. Suddenly I was just realising it’s not going to happen this year.
“I talked to my parents, my psychologist, my coach and they have all been quite supportive and a lot of players on tour, coaches and caddies have all been very supportive, texting me, calling me.”
“I haven’t experienced that before so I’m fighting with emotions inside of me,” he later added. “I want to focus on the week, it’s a great venue, a great tournament but it’s still somewhere inside the back of my mind what happened a couple of days ago.”
Despite missing out on the tournament there is a silver lining for Meronk. Former European Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam has claimed that he would have selected the Polish golfer if he were captain of the team.
The 1991 Masters champion tweeted: “You would of been in my team there only one way to prove people wrong go out there and win a major.”
The Ryder Cup tournament is taking place at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy this year and starts on September 25.
