Adrian Meronk insisted he has accepted being overlooked for a Ryder Cup wild card as he threatened to outscore all 12 members of the European team in the BMW PGA Championship.
After an 80-minute delay due to early morning fog, Meronk added a second round of 68 to his opening 67 at Wentworth to share the clubhouse lead with Belgium’s Thomas Detry and Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura.
Former winner Tyrrell Hatton was the best-placed of the Ryder Cup dozen in the early wave on seven under, with Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick both a shot further back.
Meronk said last week he was “shocked, sad and angry” not to receive a pick from Europe captain Luke Donald, especially after winning his third DP World Tour title in the space of 10 months in May’s Italian Open at the Ryder Cup venue on the outskirts of Rome.
“I have accepted it,” the 30-year-old Pole said at Wentworth, “The first couple of days after were tough, but I have moved on and am focused on my game. I want to finish the season strongly and that is my only goal now.
“I know it’s easy to say, but it’s like having a bad round and letting it go. This one was a little bit tougher to accept because it wasn’t based on me and someone else made that decision.
“I definitely think it is wrong. I feel I’ve deserved it. I feel I’ve shown in the last two years that I’ve played really good on the DP World Tour. If you look at the results and the numbers, I thought it was enough, but there’s nothing I can do now.
“But I have been pretty good at accepting things in my career. I’m trying to turn all that disappointment and anger into motivation, especially this week.”
Meronk, who received shouts of encouragement in Polish as he completed his round, believes the captain having six wild cards is too many and that one should be held back until after the end of the DP World Tour’s flagship event.
“I’d say that four would probably be reasonable and I think leaving one or two picks for these big tournaments would be a good idea,” he added.
“This time the team has been picked basically after a four-week break and then playing two small events. I think one spot should be reserved after this week at least.”
I have been pretty good at accepting things in my career. I’m trying to turn all that disappointment and anger into motivation, especially this week— Adrian Meronk
Rahm looked in danger of missing the halfway cut when he thinned his second shot on the first into the face of a fairway bunker and ran up a double bogey, before also dropping a shot on the third.
However, the Masters champion responded with an eagle on the fourth, chipped in to save par on the sixth and covered his last 10 holes in six under par.
“None of those swings felt bad, it was just an unfortunate thing to happen on the first but you have put it on the fairway around here,” said Rahm, who carded a closing 62 here last year to finish runner-up for the second time in two starts.
