Ignoring LIV's Europeans for Ryder Cup 'foolish'

Graeme McDowell failed in his attempt to qualify for this month's Open Championship at West Lancashire on Tuesday

The DP World Tour will look "foolish" if it does not consider LIV's European players for this year's Ryder Cup, says former vice-captain Graeme McDowell.

"To ignore LIV because of politics when the US have those players in their side doesn't make any sense," said McDowell.

"It makes Europe's tour look foolish."

The 44th edition of the biennial Ryder Cup sees Europe host the United States at the Marco Simone Golf Club near Rome from 29 September-1 October.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Northern Ireland's McDowell, who was on the winning team in three of his four Ryder Cup appearances and was a vice-captain for the past two editions, added: "Talor Gooch and Brooks Koepka are going to be on the US Ryder Cup team, I think that's pretty obvious.

"I hope that if one of the European players at LIV puts in a summer deserving of a spot on the Ryder Cup side that the landscape would be available for that to happen.

"I think Sergio Garcia is probably the lead guy right now and I think the European team room would be better with a Sergio Garcia in it.

"I read the stuff with him and Rory McIlroy [resolving their differences] and I'm super happy that those guys have moved on from stuff that shouldn't have come between them - politics and business.

"I'd love to see them walking down a fairway in Rome, winning a foursomes match together. I think that's what every European Ryder Cup fan wants."

American players on the LIV tour are eligible to play in the Ryder Cup, with Koepka currently ranked third in their list of automatic qualifiers after winning the US PGA Championship in May.

However, Gooch, who has won three LIV tournaments this year, is 85th in the US rankings.

The 12-man team will be made up of the top six qualifiers and six picks made by captain Zach Johnson, although he said at the US PGA Championship that he would not be attending LIV events to check on the form of potential Ryder Cup players.

The European team will be decided in a similar fashion with six qualifiers and six picks made by Luke Donald, who replaced Henrik Stenson as captain after the Swede opted to join LIV.

And there is renewed hope for the LIV players that a solution could be found following last month's shock news that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour had agreed a merger with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV Golf.

Speaking before this week's LIV event at Centurion Golf Club near London, Ian Poulter, who has played on seven Ryder Cup teams, five of them as a captain's pick, said: "To be in a position we are today where the powers that be are actually trying to work things out is good for golf.

"I think I've had more comment in the last couple of weeks from members at Woburn Golf Club, comments on social media, who were obviously excited about the potential of what could happen.

"We don't know any of the detail. We don't know the position of the DP World Tour to allow us that opportunity, so we'll just have to wait and see. But we're in a better position today than we were a month ago."