'It's probably doing his head in' - Europe's Ryder Cup hopefuls rise to challenge in British Masters

Heading into the final day in an event hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, three-time Ryder Cup player Fitzpatrick leads on 12 under, one ahead of Alex Noren, who played on a winning European team in France in 2018.

Nicolai Hojgaard, who helped Donald’s team regain the trophy with a 16.5-11.5 victory in Rome two years ago, sits a shot further back, as does in-form Marco Penge.

Six days after landing the Danish Golf Championship, the Englishman stepped up his bid to make it back-to-back wins on the DP World Tour by equalling the course record with a sensational nine-under-par 63 on the Brabazon Course.

Matt Wallace, who sits 11th on the points list, one ahead of Fitzpatrick, is also in contention with a round to go in the $3.5 million event, sitting three off the lead as he bids to avoid narrowly missing out again being overlooked by Thomas Bjorn for a wildcard seven years ago.

Rasmus Hojgaard, the only player who started the week with a chance of securing an automatic spot rather than having to rely on a captain’s pick, has also risen to the challenge so far.

Needing to finish in a two-way tie for 29th or better to jump above Shane Lowry and join Rory McIlroy, Bob MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Tyrell Hatton in a guaranteed spot, he sits joint-16th with 18 holes to go at the Sutton Coldfield venue.

“I know Luke gives you probably the PC line of ‘yeah, it’s a good headache’ but it’s probably doing his head in,” said Fitzpatrick, who is bidding to land his second win in the event after making his tour breakthrough at Woburn a decade ago. “He’s probably so annoyed because he probably wants one guy to power through and be like ‘at least my decision is made’.

‘There’s a real mix of guys in there’

“To me, there’s a ton of people in the mix and a ton of things up there that can happen. I wouldn’t want to be Luke Donald, I’ll be honest with you, because obviously people are going to be upset as they feel they deserve to be there and probably deserve it, too.”

Donald also has next week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland to take into account before naming his six wildcards on Monday week. All set to be in the field, Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, is a two-time winner at Crans-sur-Sierre, where Noren, Wallace and Rasmus Hojgaard have also claimed victories.

“I don’t think desire is necessarily the word,” said Fitzpatrick of so many players putting themselves in the frame when the chips are down. “I think it is probably more they have risen to the occasion. I think it would be easy to want it badly and not play well this week or the weeks leading up.

“Obviously Ras has played well the last two weeks and Marco is making a great run for it and Alex Noren is in the mix today. Matt Wallace is playing well and Nicolai is now up there as well. There’s a real mix of guys in there and it is going to be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Penge, who finished joint-second in this year’s Genesis Scottish Open and is Rory McIlroy’s closest challenger in the Race to Dubai, has given himself a chance of being a Ryder Cup rookie despite being banned from three months during the qualification period after breaching the DP World Tour’s integrity rules when placing bets on tournaments.

“Yeah, I think the delayed start to the year - we all know what happened there - turned out to be great for me,” insisted Penge, who won the Scottish Stroke-Play Championship at Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth in 2015.

“I had time to sit down with my team for a couple of months, work hard in the gym, work hard at my technique, spend some time with my family and friends. Yeah, it gave me a massive drive to come back and show what I can do.”