Rose and Casey Pay for a Ryder Cup Place
Colin Montgomerie, faced with arguably the most difficult decision any captain has ever had regarding wild cards, tonight named Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and uncapped Edoardo Molinari, winner of Sunday’s Johnnie Walker Championship, the last counting event in the race to Celtic Manor, as the three men to complete his line-up. More golf clubs informations.
They join automatic qualifiers Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher, Molinari’s younger brother Francesco, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson.
The Molinaris become the first brothers to play in the same Ryder Cup match since Bernhard and Geoff Hunt represented Britain in 1963.
Because the so-called FedEx Four – Harrington, Casey, Donald and Rose – chose to stay in America in the last two weeks when returning to Europe could have seen them qualify, Montgomerie was left with five players in the world’s top 22 chasing a pick.
He had to leave one of the renegades out and when Edoardo Molinari produced an astonishing three-birdie finish to snatch the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles oin Sunday, Montgomerie decided that two – Casey and Rose – would have to be left out of the team when the match is staged on Welsh soil for the first time at Celtic Manor on October 1-3.
Montgomerie deliberated with vice-captains Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke – and they will be joined in the week of the match by Sergio Garcia, who asked to be involved after losing his place.
In Harrington, he has gone for a three-time major winner, but one who has not won a Ryder Cup game in the last two matches, and in Donald he has selected a player who lost only once in his two appearances before suffering the wrist injury that kept him out two years ago.
Today’s recommendations: callaway diablo edge irons, callaway ft-iq driver.
Montgomerie said: “Padraig is someone that we feel nobody in match play golf wants to play – a great competitor.”
Another big plus for Donald was that he was third at Celtic Manor in June’s Wales Open.
Casey was the highest-ranked of all five main candidates, though, and out-played them in finishing third in last month’s Open and 12th at the recent US PGA.
He also won the World Match Play at Wentworth in 2006 and was a finalist in the last two WGC-Accenture Championships in Arizona.
Against that, he needed a wild card last time after staying in the States then as well and scored only two half points from three games.
Rose was much more successful with three points out of four on his debut, partnering Poulter to two wins and beating Phil Mickelson no less in the singles.
He has played less than anybody in Europe this season, though, and after two brilliant US Tour victories earlier this summer he missed the halfway cut in the last two majors – just like Harrington.