Captain Paul Lawrie, Ryder Cup Europe and the European Golf Association have confirmed a revised selection process for the European Team for the rescheduled 2020 Junior Ryder Cup.
The 1999 Open Champion Lawrie, who has represented Europe twice as a player in The Ryder Cup, will head a selection committee which will choose all 12 participants following the disruption to the playing schedule caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee will take into account performances in all international events in the coming season, with close attention paid to a selection of eight boys’ international events and nine girls’ tournaments.
Lawrie will be joined on the committee by Anna Roscio, Team Manager of the Italian Ladies’ Golf Team, 2021 Walker Cup Captain and former Junior Ryder Cup Captain Stuart Wilson and Edward Kitson, from Ryder Cup Europe. Spencer Henderson, former Scottish Boys’ National Coach, will be Lawrie’s Vice Captain for the matches and will also sit on the selection committee.
The European team, comprising six boys and six girls, will take on the USA at Blue Mound Golf & Country Club, Wisconsin, from September 20-21, 2021. Boys and girls who are citizens of a European country as defined by the International Golf Federation’s Nationality Policy, are under 18 years of age on January 1, 2021 and who are not enrolled to play college golf in USA during 2021, are eligible to participate in the 2020 Junior Ryder Cup.
The first of the selected boy’s and girls’ events, the Copa S.M. El Rey and Copa S.M. La Reina, took place in Spain last week. The team will then be selected after the final events – the R&A Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships at Royal Cinque Ports & Prince’s and Fulford Golf Club respectively in August.
In addition, selection and performance in the Jacques Léglise and Junior Vagliano Trophies will be highly regarded by the selection committee.
“With the revised criteria for the Junior Ryder Cup team now established, I’m very excited to see Europe’s best junior golfers compete this year,” said Lawrie. “I’m delighted to be joined on the committee by Anna, Edward, Stuart and Spencer.
“There’s a lot of golf to be played between now and August and we expect competition to be fierce.”
The Junior Ryder Cup, held on the Monday and Tuesday of Ryder Cup week, sees the best male and female junior amateurs from Europe and the USA go head-to-head in a mixed event.
The biennial contest has seen many stars from world golf feature in the junior competition before excelling for Team Europe at The Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup. Major winners Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Suzanne Peterson all succeeded in the event before also winning The Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup.
