“Welcome to Team Europe!”
Luke Donald delivered those congratulatory words to Rasmus Hojgaard moments after the 24-year-old Dane secured one of six automatic spots on Europe’s Ryder Cup team. Hojgaard will join the squad headed to Bethpage Black for the September 26-28 competition.
Missing the cut for this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Hojgaard. It allowed him to compete in the DP World Tour’s Betfred British Masters, where he needed just a two-way tie for 29th to earn enough points to jump past Shane Lowry for the final automatic qualification spot.
Hojgaard did much better than that. His final-round 71 on Sunday secured a tie for 13th, comfortably achieving his goal.
“I don’t know what to feel,” Hojgaard told reporters afterward. “I’ve been so stressed out on the course today. I was telling my caddie, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do this.
“I’m over the moon right now.”
The qualification completes a remarkable family story. Rasmus will make his Ryder Cup debut two years after his twin brother, Nicolai, represented Europe in Rome. Interestingly, Rasmus served as a buggy driver during that 2023 competition.
He joins Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton as Europe’s automatic qualifiers.
Donald will announce his six captain’s picks on September 1. Lowry, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Åberg, Sepp Straka and Matt Fitzpatrick (who finished T-6 at the British Masters) are the frontrunners for those spots.
In the tournament itself, Alex Noren claimed the British Masters title, sinking a 7-foot boggy putt on the final hole to win by one stroke over Nicolai Hojgaard and Kazuma Kobori. It’s Noren’s first DP World Tour victory in seven years.
