Shane Lowry confident he'll justify Luke Donald's Ryder Cup faith

Shane Lowry believes Europe have the best 12 players available as they bid to regain the Ryder Cup from the United States.

Lowry received one of captain Luke Donald's six wild cards on Monday having finished 11th on the European points list and eighth on the world points list, with only the top three on each qualifying automatically.

The former Open champion won the first qualifying event - and will defend his BMW PGA Championship title next week - but his sole top-10 finish in 2023 came in February's Honda Classic.

That has led to criticism of Lowry's selection, with former British Masters winner Richard Bland among those believing that Adrian Meronk's consistent form - including May's Italian Open victory at the Ryder Cup venue - meant the Pole "deserves a pick over an out-of-form Lowry."

"Well, people have their opinion," Lowry said ahead of the Horizon Irish Open at The K Club.

"Adrian has had a great year and obviously he's unfortunate to miss out, but somebody has to miss out.

"I'm not going to sit here and disagree with Luke Donald. It was his decision at the end of the day, if he thinks that somebody else is better for this team than he [Meronk] was.

"I'm very confident in my own ability, and I know what I can bring."

"If you look at the way the team was picked, there's not many players playing that weren't in the top 12, myself included. And that's why you have six picks, so you have the chance to pick the 12 best players.

"I personally think that's the right way to go about it and I think we have the best 12 players from Europe coming to play this Ryder Cup, and I think we're in form.

"A lot of players are in very good form, as you've seen over the last few weeks, and I think we're going to give it a great go this year.

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