Rasmus Højgaard entered into the final week of Ryder Cup qualifying for the European team nine points behind Shane Lowry. With Lowry playing in the 2025 Tour Championship (the PGA Tour and FedEx Cup Playoffs finale, which doesn’t count towards qualifying) and Højgaard in the field at the British Masters (which does), the young Dane simply needed to finish among the top 29 golfers in the field to leap the Irishman and secure his spot on Luke Donald’s team.
On Sunday, Højgaard managed just that, shooting a final-round 71 to get in the clubhouse at 8 under, good for T13 and well inside the number he needed to automatically advance to Bethpage Black.
While Højgaard did not need to worry about getting the job done given his final-round positioning, he still felt pressure and nerves throughout, noting after his round he wasn’t entirely sure how he got it to the clubhouse.
“It’s — I don’t know what to feel right now,” Højgaard said Sunday. “I’ve been so stressed out on the course today, and yeah, I was telling Tom, my caddie, out there, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna be able to do this.’ I managed to make a good four at the end there, so, yeah it’s — I’m over the moon right now.”
Højgaard will join the five other men who are already locked into the European squad; they will await next week’s captain’s picks from Donald to find out how the European squad will round out their roster as they look to get the first road Ryder Cup win by anyone in more than a decade.
2025 Ryder Cup team — Europe automatic qualifiers
- Rory McIlroy
- Robert MacIntyre
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Justin Rose
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Rasmus Højgaard
There are fewer questions surrounding the European captain’s picks compared to those on the American side now that the United States has its six automatic qualifiers solidified. Lowry, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Åberg, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick were all part of the team last time, and barring a surprising move from Donald, they are expected to be the six captain’s selections.
The only change will be Rasmus Højgaard on the squad instead of his brother, Nicolai, though Nicolai is trying to make one final push with a win at the British Masters to join his twin brother and supplant one of those six names above. Harry Hall has also made a strong statement in recent weeks, but he likely needed something spectacular at the Tour Championship to have a real chance at making the team and hasn’t produced that this week.