Leaving Eddie Pepperell out of the Ryder Cup Would Be Big Mistake

There’s virtually no chance Thomas Bjorn will pick Eddie Pepperell for his Ryder Cup team despite the season the Englishman has put together and only being a couple places short of an automatic place. It will be hard to blame Bjorn either should this be this be the case given that a team that is top-heavy with rookies often gets soundly beaten – but Pepperell wouldn’t be your run-of-the-mill rookie.

The 27-year-old has had a terrific season that has seen him win on the European Tour after he claimed top honours at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in February. There wasn’t a better time to win as qualification for the Ryder Cup was heating up and a second-place finish at the Aberdeen Open and sixth place at the Open looked like it might be enough for Pepperell to finish in the top eight.

With only a couple of weeks left before the team is announced it seems that Pepperell will miss out and it will be a costly miss given how close he is to automatic qualification. When Europe lost to America in 2016 they had six rookies in their team and when you consider that Olesen, Rahm, Fleetwood, Noren, and Hatton are all rookies and will qualify automatically, it becomes hard to see a way in for Pepperell.

The Englishman will be a victim of past failures; however, one can’t help but think that that would be a mistake. After all, Pepperell has shown he is able to fight back in the face of adversity after losing his European Tour card in 2016 during a horror show second round in Portugal where he followed up a first round 64 with a 76 to lose his playing privileges on the European Tour for 2017.

By his own admission, Pepperell went back to his hotel room and cried after the double bogey on the last gave him the impression at the time that his life was falling apart. It would be a month later that Pepperell went to Q-School and won back his card for the next season. Since then, he hasn’t looked back and having come from the depths of personal despair to overcome the odds, you’re left thinking that the 27-year-old has been given a greater perspective on life that so many tour golfers never get.

That experience would have hardened Pepperell and that is a trait that any prospective Ryder Cup player needs to succeed. Sinking a putt to win a game against America pales in comparison to losing your financial security on the European tour. Europe are up against it and at 6/5 in Ryder Cup betting at William Hill, they come in as the outsiders on home soil. It will take a certain type of player to wrestle back the advantage from America and Pepperell fits the mould.

The 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris may have come too soon for Eddie Pepperell but he will surely get a chance at some point over his career. He would also be a great team man to have around and is like few golfers out there after freely admitting to being hungover during his final round at the Open where he shot 67 and almost won the Claret Jug.

An Eddie Pepperell comes along less than once in a generation and when they do it’s a breath of fresh air. The eccentric Englishman would be a fantastic addition to Bjorn’s team and his presence would give the Ryder Cup an added bit of excitement as the boy from Oxford takes on the American superstars. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to see it at some point over the next few years