The captain of European Ryder Cup team, Thomas Björn, did he make the same mistake by choosing Sergio Garcia as the wild card choice that Darren Clarke made with Lee Westwood two years ago at Hazeltine?

Thomas Bjorn makes his choice for the European Ryder Cup team

Thomas Björn and Jim Furyk, photo © TPlassais / swing-feminin

That was the most relevant question after Thomas Björn picked the 2017 Masters winner along with Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson to fill his squad and face the Americans at Golf National in Paris later this month. The quartet joins automatic selections from Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose.

Thomas Björn opted for the Ryder Cup veteran, very experienced but not very fit, rather than athletes like Rafa Cabrera Bello, Thomas Pieters and Matt Wallace.

Cabrera Bello completed the T-7 at the Dell Technologies championship, the T-11 at the Wyndham championship and the T-10 at the PGA championship. It is a place higher than Sergio Garcia in the official world ranking, 29th to 30th rank of Garcia.

Wallace will feel aggrieved since he won the last European qualifying tournament, the Made in Denmark. Wallace made seven birdies on his last eight holes to win the championship, his third victory of the season. Pieters has also shown a return to form recently, with three top-10s in his last five starts.

Sergio Garcia did not make the FedEx Cup qualifiers. He has missed seven cuts since the Masters, including three in his last five starts. He finished eighth at the French Open this year, his first experience of the Ryder Cup course.

The Dane is hoping he doesn't suffer the same fate Clarke did two years ago when he picked Westwood because of his experience, but Westwood only went 0-3 in his 10th Ryder Cup.

This time Sergio Garcia takes on the role played by Westwood as the most experienced player on the European team. The 38-year-old Espasgnol makes his ninth appearance in the biennial match. His statistics in the event are 19 wins, 11 losses, 7 draws.

In their first appearance two years ago in the Ryder Cup, Cabrera Bello scored 2.5 points out of 3 and Pieters 4 out of 5.

Thomas Björn took a huge bet on Sergio Garcia, which could hamper Europe's chances of winning the Ryder Cup.

Will Tomas Björn's bet be a winner? Sergio Garcia has in any case rarely disappointed in the Ryder Cup!