Shane Lowry’s selection as one of the six Wildcard picks for this year’s Ryder cup is a boost for Irish golf and for Lowry’s sponsors.
Sweden’s Ludwig Aberg, Denmark’s Nicolai Højgaard and Austria’s Sepp Straka will each be making their first appearance for Europe in the Ryder Cup, while Lowry will be playing in his first on European soil having been part of the team at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin two years ago.
It will be Englishman Tommy Fleetwood’s third consecutive Ryder Cup, following his memorable debut in 2018 when he won four points out of five in Paris, while his compatriot Justin Rose returns to the European Team for the first time since that contest at Le Golf National five years ago. Rose will make his sixth Ryder Cup appearance overall, having previously featured in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
They join Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert McIntyre who qualified automatically on their seasons form and ranking.
“We have great depth of talent in Europe, and that is perfectly illustrated with the team we now have confirmed for Rome, which is a strong blend of players with previous Ryder Cup experience combined with exciting and talented rookies,” said team Europe Captain Luke Donald.
“I’m really pleased to have this team now in place, and we are all looking forward to going to Rome later this month and trying to win back the Ryder Cup.”
It will be a tough ask for the European team but not an impossible one. BoyleSports bookmakers make Team USA favourites at odds of 1.83 with Europe at 2.30 and a draw at 13.0. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are co-favourites to be the leading points scorer at odds of 8.50. Shane Lowry can be backed for that at odds of 36.0.
There is a huge boost for a players standing with the general public and with sponsors as a result of playing in a Ryder Cup.
Lowry’s sponsors include Bank of Ireland who have supported him since 2014, fellow Sport for Business members Teneo who renewed a three year sponsorship deal effective from the start of this year, and Immedis. Dublin e-commerce brand Wayflyer are also in a three year deal.
Kingspan and Srixon Golf are additional partners of the Clara man.
It will be a short turnaround now to get messages of support turned around and hopefully some individual content ahead of the tournament in Rome.
Aberg only turned professional this summer and is one of the rising stars of the game. The winner of last week’s European Masters he has already signed a major deal with Adidas.
At the other end of the experience scale Justin Rose has long term deals with Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, Axis 1, Bonobos, Lamkin and the Condor Estate.
Tommy Fleetwood also has a strong hand of backers including BMW, Nike, Tag Heuer and TaylorMade.
Sepp Straka has a number of golf and tech brands on his side, while Nicolai Hojgaard is sponsored by Calloway and has a joint partnership with Scan Global alongside his twin brother Rasmus.
