Worksop's Lee Westwood secures automatic place in Europe's Ryder Cup team

Worksop’s Lee Westwood has secured an automatic place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
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The 48-year-old automatically qualified for a place after the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Westwood joins automatic qualifiers Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Bernd Wiesberger, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Paul Casey and Matthew Fitzpatrick in defending the trophy.

Captain Padraig Harrington handed his wildcards to Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry and Ian Poulter.

Lee Westwood is pictured on the third hole during Day Three of The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club on September 11, 2021. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)Lee Westwood is pictured on the third hole during Day Three of The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club on September 11, 2021. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Lee Westwood is pictured on the third hole during Day Three of The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club on September 11, 2021. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Europe, who have won nine of the past 12 Ryder Cups, are the defending champions after beating the US 17½-10½ at Le Golf National in France in 2018. Seven of that team will play in this year's contest at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from September 24-36.

Westwood could have lost his automatic place to Shane Lowry if the Irishman had secured a top-eight finish at Wentworth.

He began Sunday in a tie for seventh, but slipped down the leaderboard with a final round of 71.

That meant Westwood claimed the final qualification spot and will tie Sir Nick Faldo's record of 11 Ryder Cup appearances.

Englishman Justin Rose was among those to miss out on a place in the team.