Adrian Meronk devastated after missing out on Ryder Cup chance

Meronk won his third DP World Tour title in the space of 10 months in May's Italian Open, which was staged at the Ryder Cup venue on the outskirts of Rome.

The 30-year-old Pole also finished fifth on the European Points list, 20 places above the selected Nicolai Hojgaard, while Shane Lowry's selection has also been questioned due to a poor run of form.

Meronk finished 13th in last week's final qualifying event in Switzerland and was expecting good news when he received the call from Donald while on a train to Geneva.

"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 going into this week," Meronk said of his title defence in the Horizon Irish Open.

"Obviously it's a hard one to swallow, I thought I'd done enough to be on that 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 a call because they told me they were going to call regardless and I was in quite a good mood to be honest. I was on the train coming from Switzerland, I'd had a nice finish and I was in shock.

"I heard from him (Donald) that it was tough for him as well but to be honest when he said I'm not going I kind of stopped listening.

"He was saying that someone has to stay home, it was close 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 the last year and a half I spent a lot of time thinking about this and that was my goal. Suddenly I was just realising it's not going to happen this year.

"I talked to my parents, my psychologist, my coach and they have all been quite supportive and a lot of players on tour, coaches and caddies have all been very supportive, texting me, calling me."

Asked if fellow players had been saying they were surprised by his omission, Meronk added: "Yeah, quite a few. That's very encouraging and I appreciate all that support."

Meronk also revealed that some Polish fans had already bought tickets for Rome as they were confident he would be on the team, and admitted it would be hard to focus on his title defence at The K Club.

"It's not easy," added the world number 51, who will partner Rory McIlroy and American Billy Horschel for the first two rounds.

"I haven't experienced that before so I'm fighting with emotions inside of me. I want to focus on the week, it's a great venue, a great tournament but it’s still somewhere inside of in the back of my mind what happened a couple of days ago.

"But I hope I will be ready tomorrow on the first tee and I will give my best as I always do."

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