Adrian Meronk admits he’s been left ‘shocked, sad and angry’ after missing out on Europe’s Ryder Cup team

Adrian Meronk says he was shocked and angry after being excluded from Luke Donald’s European squad for the Ryder Cup.

The Pole, a three-time winner of the DP World Tour in the past fourteen months, was the most glaring omission among the six wildcards announced by Donald on Monday.

The world number 51 finished fifth on the European Points List and eleventh on the World List, each responsible for three automatic qualifiers, but the 30-year-old missed out on a captain’s pick, despite placing higher on that leaderboard than Nicolai’s youthful duo Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg. Doubts have also been raised about the form of Shane Lowry, who was given a wild card.

Meronk, who will defend his Irish Open title this week, said: ‘It’s been an emotional time for me to be honest, from shock to sadness to anger and now I’m trying to turn it into motivation for this week.

“Obviously it’s hard to swallow, I thought I’d done enough to be on that team, but it is what it is. I wish them luck and I will just focus on my game and move on.

The world number 51 failed to secure a place in Luke Donald’s captaincy list (above).

“I was expecting a call (from Donald) because they told me they would call anyway and I was in a pretty good mood to be honest. I was on the train from Switzerland (where he had tied for 13th place at the Omega European Masters). I had a nice finish and was in shock.

“I heard from him (Donald) that it was hard for him too, but to be honest, when he said I’m not going, I kind of stopped listening. He said someone had to stay home, it was close by and stuff like that. I wouldn’t want to be in his position, but it was a big shock.

“On Monday, the first half of the day was just sadness and disbelief and then anger because I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past year and a half and that was my goal. Suddenly I realized it wasn’t going to happen this year.

“Many players on tour, coaches and caddies have all been very supportive of me, texting and calling me.”

Meronk’s participation prospects were bolstered by winning the Italian Open in May at the same Marco Simone court in Rome that will host the US match later this month.

Former captain Ian Woosnam tweeted Meronk to say he would have been on his team and Lee Westwood described the big-hitter as “unlucky.” Two-time PGA Tour winner Paul Goydos described his omission as a “crime.”

The Polish star was the most glaring omission among the six announced wildcards