Sixteen Euros, including prospective rookies, scout Ryder Cup venue; Aaron Rai had good excuse to miss
· Yahoo Sports
Aaron Rai wasn’t snubbed from the recent European Ryder Cup scouting trip to Adare Manor. The PGA-winning Englishman rather had a good excuse to miss.
Rai declined his invitation because he had a close friend’s wedding to attend Sunday in Portugal that he committed to a few months back.
Visit somethingsdifferent.biz for more information.
“I've been in the States for the last three weeks … so I felt the travel from America to Portugal, then Portugal to Ireland, then Ireland to here would have just felt like a lot,” Rai explained. “This is a really big event, and it means a lot to me. So, I felt like I wanted to kind of prepare for this, especially on the back end of that busyness. It would have just felt like a lot really.”
Sixteen prospective team members attended the de-facto training session in Ireland, which followed last week’s Irish Open in nearby Doonbeg and featured a Sunday night dinner and 18 holes of golf on Monday. In attendance were 10 players from last year’s winning squad at Bethpage: Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre and Sepp Straka.
Joining them were past Ryder Cuppers Alex Noren and Nicolai Hojgaard, plus four potential rookies: Alex Fitzpatrick, Kristoffer Reitan, Eugenio Chacarra and Angel Ayora.
Rory McIlroy and Ramus Hojgaard were the two 2025 Ryder Cuppers who did not participate.
Rahm called Adare “immaculate” and the one-day event “very enjoyable.” He was grouped with Hatton, Hojgaard and Chacarra.
“I think those days are great for all of us to see each other and just in a way remember why we do what we do,” Rahm said. “But for people that have never been involved in anything Ryder Cup related, I think it's great to get a little bit of an example of what things may look like and what things may be like.”
Added Fleetwood, who played with Rose, Lowry and Ayora: “Seeing there's so much that's going to happen between now and then, but getting a glimpse, a taste of it, was really cool.”
Fitzpatrick teamed with his little brother to beat Straka and MacIntyre. Hovland, Reitan, Aberg and Noren comprised an All-Scandinavia grouping.
Lowry said he didn’t arrive at Adare until 1 a.m. following his victory at the Irish Open.
“I was very tired on the course, and we had a good time,” Lowry. “It was a worthwhile trip for the team, and I'm sure Luke [Donald] and Dodo [Molinari] got some good stuff out of it. I got to go home and see my parents and everyone in Offaly on Monday evening, so that was nice. I've had a nice few days. It's been great. Place been plenty of Mondays this year where I've been not in the best of form, so it's nice to kind of be around to people you're closest to and yeah try and enjoy it as much as you can.”
McIlroy didn't provide his reason for skipping, but he did predict lots of continuity from the last two Ryder Cups.
"Look, inevitably there might be some new faces on that team, but I don't think there's certainly not going to be wholesale changes," McIlroy said. "I think the nucleus of our team will remain the nucleus. You might have a couple maybe, but I'd say for the most part, as long as everyone plays well and stays injury-free, you're going to have a very similar looking team to what we've had the last couple times."