Adrian Meronk would have wished for a quiet week away from the spotlight after his gut wrenching Ryder Cup omission on Monday but an unfortunate consequence as defending Horizon Irish Open champion is of course, media duties.
Meronk, who dealt with the news with a sense of class on Monday, is focused on defending his Irish Open title this week at the K Club after being left understandably ‘shocked, sad and angry’ at missing out on a Ryder Cup place for Luke Donald’s European Team.
Despite picking up three wins in fifteen months, including this year’s Italian Open at the Ryder Cup host course, Marco Simone, the Polish player seemed a strong contender for an automatic qualification place and even more likely for a wildcard having missed out on the top-6. But to his shock he was left dejected when Donald called him to break the news that he was not part of the 12-man travelling party to Rome later this month with Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Nicolai Hojgaard, Sepp Straka and Ludvig Aberg selected instead.
“Yeah, it’s been emotional time for me to be honest from shock to sadness to anger, and now I’m trying to turn it into motivation going into this week,” said Meronk, the first Polish golfer to win on the DP World Tour at Mount Juliet last year. “Obviously it’s a hard one to swallow. I thought I’ve done enough to be on the team but it is what it is. I wish them good luck and I will just focus on my game and move forward.
“I was expecting the call because they told me they are going to call me regardless. So I was in quite a good mood to be honest. I was on the train coming from Switzerland. Had a nice finish.
“To be honest, I was in shock, yeah, because I was expecting I have a pretty decent chance to be on the team but it was a quite shocking call, yeah.
“I heard from him (Donald) that it was tough for him, as well. To be honest when he said I’m not going, I kind of stopped listening. It was just — I was like, didn’t listen much to be honest. He was saying that someone had to stay home. It was close obviously and stuff like that. Obviously I wouldn’t want to be in his position. I knew it was tough for him.
“But yeah, as I said, it was a big shock and I didn’t really focus after that.”
Meronk isn’t the only one left open mouthed by his omission with some of his fellow players also left aghast by the decision.
“Yeah, quite a few. That’s very encouraging. I appreciate all that support.”
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