With the announcement that Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters will be his wildcard picks, captain Darren Clarke has completed his European line-up for the much anticipated Ryder Cup battle against the United States.

The three names were pretty much on expected lines, although there was a strong rumour the past couple of days that Clarke was thinking of picking up Luke Donald instead of Pieters to ensure there was more experience in the team.

But by picking up Pieters, Europe now have six rookies and six players who have past experience in the high-pressure biennial event, and I think they have got a brilliant mix.

Donald and Russell Knox can consider themselves very unlucky.

The Englishman has a fabulous record in the Ryder Cup and served a timely reminder about his resurgence with a second place finish in the Wyndham Championship. However, Westwood and Kaymer have definitely had a more solid season.

Knox did everything he could and presented a strong case for himself. The US-based Scotsman won the WGC-HSBC Champions last year when not a European Tour member and the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour a few weeks ago. If he had taken his membership before the Shanghai win, the world No20 would have automatically qualified for the team. As it stands, he is the highest ranked European who will not be there at Hazeltine.

It was a straight fight between Knox and Pieters for the third spot, and I believe the Belgian edged the Scotsman because he brings an X-factor to the European side. The 23-year-old has played college golf in America, but not too many tournaments there as a professional. And as I mentioned last week, he is terrific off the tee and has a strong short game. If you just look at the past three weeks, he has shown enough recent form to demand Clarke’s attention.

Next up is US captain Davis Love’s announcement on September 12. Following last week’s The Barclays, his eight automatic qualifiers are in and I must admit it is looking like a very strong team. There are many who would have liked Rickie Fowler to secure his spot by winning the tournament, but they should be equally pleased with the feisty Patrick Reed hitting top form at the right time.

Love has four picks, and I have a strong feeling he is going to go with Fowler, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar, and then base his last pick purely on form.

The solid Kuchar, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson are five players who can provide the perfect counterpart to their flamboyant team-mates when pairings are being done.

The players have two FedEx Cup Playoff events to make their last, and lasting, impression on Love. We are surely set for some exciting times over the next two weeks.

(Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time champion on the European Tour)