Ryder Cup: Europe's team to tackle the US

I think it was a tough call on Casey, I would have left Harrington out . His game is so out of sorts its hard to see him making much of a contributing in the Ryder Cup. Also his record in previous Ryder Cups is very poor.Being Irish myself I would love to see him on form and playing, but its unfair on players who are in much better form and have a much better record in the Ryder Cup. It was great to see the Molinari brothers make it, those two guys are on fire right now.

So Monty makes his first big, big mistake. The choice of Harrington is indefensible. Casey was 3rd in the Open (Harrington missed the cut), Casey was 12th in the USPGA (Harrington missed the cut); Rose was twice a winner on the US PGA tour this year, including one of the world's most prestigious tournaments, the Memorial, and nearly three in succession (Harrington hasn't won for two years.) And Harrington's record in the last two Ryder Cups was catastrophic - no wins and only one point altogether in TWO Ryder Cups. It's just a joke. Talk about a cosy old pals act. And all this choosing of Rhys Davies as his buggy driver - so patronising. I would have had Rhys Davies in the team before Harrington. Or Langer, or Simon Dyson, or Oliver Wilson, or Nick Dougherty, in fact ANYONE but Harrington. The wild cards should have been Casey, Donald and Rose. The flawed selection system needs a serious revamp. Can Monty honestly put hand on heart and say these are the 12 he would have chosen? Over the last three months or so the initiative has gone to the Americans, decisively so tonight. It was quite clear what Bernard Gallacher thought of the Harrington choice on Radio 5 live. I bet the press gives Monty a right roasting tomorow as all the blogs everywhere do tonight.

And how many more Vice Captains do we have to have - will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? When do we have announcement of the assistants to the Vice Captains?

it' a fair decision. If Rose and Casey cared so much about the cause they could always have qualified in Europe.

Harrington does carry a level of respect for his multiple major wins, although this will not continue for ever otherwise Faldo would still be in the team.

Really glad Molinari was given a pick - it would have been the easy thing to leave him out & go with 3 of the 4.

re splendido - yawn your anti harrington stance is pathetic.
The guy just missed out on the qualification and yet according to you anyone would be better than harrington as he is playing so terribly. Well that doesn't say much for those other players who finish behind such a 'terrible player'
Every major we hear the endless talk about the english players rose donald casey etc and yet they never win and the rest of us are suppose to love them because they finished tied 12th every tournament. giving them a good world ranking yet they never have to handle real pressure.
Alot of the commentary against harringtons pick is 'whos gonna play with poults' this is ridicolous the european is exceptionally strong poulter is by no means the top player in it. Is he better than westwood mcilroy kaymer mcdowell? no way.
As for harrington's 'catastrophic' record in the ryder cup get a grip. in his rookie cup in brookline in 99 he was one of the very few europeans who did not buckle on sunday and won his match he was excellent in 02 and 04. You conveniently point out in 06 and 08 he did not perform well. True however in both cups there were mitigating factors. The 06 ryder cup was in ireland harrington was the go to man [and used by the european tour for marketing purposes] its a wonder he had any time to practice and in 08 he was coming off back to back majors and was struggling with coming down off such a high. Tell me when did casey and rose ever have to deal with such a situation? Yes that's right between them they have never won one major.
In 06 Ian Woosnam correctly selected Lee Westwood who was way off the pace for a wild card i wonder did you moan so vociferously then? I somehow doubt it
Remember this isn't just an english team there are other nations with excellent players as well.

Rumour has it that Poulter will refuse to wear the official ryder cup uniform and will go it alone with his usual red white and blue Billy Smart outfits.

themanwithnoname also seems to be themanwithnoclue.
Utterly ridiculous statement that Poulter would refuse to wear the official uniform.
Perhaps you were just kidding.

Best of luck to Europe. I think Montgomerie did a fair job with his wildcard picks, although Harrington is going to have to perform well to avoid the criticism that will surely follow if he fails to win a suitable number of matches.

jimbob,

Pathetic.

I care not one jot for a player's nationality on the Ryder Cup team so long as we beat the USA. No-one I have heard who was against the selection of Harrington is against him because he isn't English. On form he is clearly the worst of the Fed-Ex four and his last two performances in the cup were dire.

It is sad you had to reach for the excuses, with Casey and Rose there would of course had been no need.

I am Irish, but in this context - and more importantly - I am European.
I do recognise Harrington has been very lucky to be picked.

I am a great fan of the man but I wish he would give up on his swing tinkering, an obsession which also brought Nick Faldo's career to a premature end.

His mental fortitude, scrambling and putting in the 8-12 foot range is renowned, but what good is this if he continues to spray balls off the tee.
Something inside me says though that Harrington will come good this Ryder cup(as Westwood did as a pick in '06;
Remember also first match against Mickelson and Kim last time out - He carried a misfiring Karlson to halve the match.

However with his driving at the moment I would only play him in the fourballs.

laraxwell

Never understood why Harrington felt the need to dismantle a swing which won him 3 majors in 13 months. The search for a more-perfect swing? It doesn't exist as even the likes of Tiger has shown. He was never the most naturally gifted of players and it was hard work and dedication that got him where he is today. Perhaps he didn't know when to stop?

As for the selection Harrington is pretty lucky although not sure that the fuss over Casey and Rose is all that justified either. I often feel that Harrington simply doesn't play often enough either so perhaps a run to the end of the playoffs may enable Padraig to find a bit more consistency ahead of the Ryder Cup.

As for the selection it may need to be looked at. If you wanted the best players you'd just use the world rankings points, but this would end up destroying events on the European Tour, especially considering they're already struggling to attract the top Europeans. Given the amount of money involved I find it hard to criticise any player for following the cash to the USA and the cashcow that are the year-end playoffs especially, but they then have to accept that they walk a tightrope in relation to qualifying for the Ryder Cup.

greensox

My response was solely aimed at splendido who clearly was focused on nationality. He picked out players he would have ahead of harrington namely dougherty dyson and wilson. It is my opinion that that is a deeply misguided belief. You ask an american golf supporter this and to even suggest having one of those three ahead of harrington would seem ridiculous. So for me splendido very much has nationality on his mind. would a three time english major champion still under 40 be subjected to such treatment?
My use of the term pathetic was not about the debate of whether harrington should be picked as that is very much a fair debate to be had, but it was in regards to splendido's extreme attitude of 'anyone but harrington'
I seem to remember a poll only a number of weeks back on this website which asked should tiger woods be dropped from the US team and splendido commented on it by not mentioning the subject matter of the poll but rather proceeded to a long winded rant of why harrington should not be picked.
I fully feel I must respond to such nonsense, harrington has proved himself a winner. I know who would like to have to sink a 15 footer to win the ryder cup under extreme pressure

jimbob1221
Splendido also said 'Or Langer'.
Maybe he's also biased towards the Germans...

Perhaps nationality isn't an issue but splendido's anti-Harrington rant begs the question "what did he ever do to you?"
I have no sympathy for Casey. Second cup in a row he's relied on a captain's pick. If he was all that why so?

Golfer in Switzerland

The fact that you ever even thought I was serious says more about your sense of humour than it will ever say about mine. ''Perhaps you were kidding''? Well done bright spark.

hey splendido - did you captain the last US team?
nasty stuff from Azinger alright

CormacR

How does it feel campin' out here waiting for the rugger blogs to fire..eh

Laraxwell

last refuge of the damned and all that. There's more hope of a lotto win than a rugby blog on this site anymore. Shame as there's a decent interview with McGeechan on the site where he advocates ring-fencing the top 14 sides and altering the salary cap fairly radically.

My opinion that Harrington should not have been given a Ryder Cup wild card has nothing whatsoever to do with nationality, but is entirely owing to the demonstrable fact that there are other better qualified players more deserving of a pick, a view shared by most of the golf writers in the Monday papers. Montgomery's statement that no American would want to play Harrington in match play beggars belief. In the last two Accenture World Match Play events, in which Paul Casey, now up to No 8 in the world rankings, was a finalist, Harrington was dumped out in the first round both times by, respectively, Pat Perez and Jeeve Milkha, of whom it would not be uncharitable to say that they are hardly household names. Harrington has not won a Ryder Cup match since 2004 and in 2006 and 2008 was comprehensively defeated in the singles by Chad Campbell and Scott Verplank. I should think whichever American draws Harrington in the singles will be delighted. Sunday's announcement could not have been made at a worse time. Justin Rose was informed just before he went out to play in his last round in the Barclays, an event in which he was lying 5th at the time and with a good chance of winning. How would Eduardo Molinari have been affected golf-wise had he been told just before teeing off at Gleneagles that he had been overlooked? Had Rose won the Barclays that would have been a far more important factor than Molinari's victory at Gleneagles. Reports suggest that personality may have come into the decision, as Casey is supposedly not the most popular figure among his peers. If so, this makes the decision even more indefensible. Churchill wasn't exactly flavour of the month among MPs in the House of Commons in 1940. The wisest comment over the weekend came from Luke Donald when he said that the whole qualification system needs a radical overhaul.

Every player is aware that if you want to play for the European team then unless you play the European Tour you are leaving yourself vulnerable to needing a wild card pick. Casey and Rose can have no complaints and to be fair they have both taken it on the chin.

That said, I agree that the Harrington pick is a risky one given his sketchy record in Ryder Cups. I'd have had Rose based on last time around but would not have complained about Casey, whose current form is good.

Done and dusted now, so lets all hope that Monty has the last laugh on his critics.

I could not have had great argument if Casey and/or Rose had got nod in lieu Harrington; Nonetheless I do believe there is a valid argument for his inclusion.
Westwood is not fit yet and the team is laden with novices.
I like Ewen Murray's measured take on this; He would not have opted for Harrington on form but he does understand the selection.
I'd go along with his article
But no need for the edgy, personal & generally OTT stuff sprayed all over the media - not something I expected from the golfing fraternity

..re popularity issues in selection..sure the world and his dog knows of Harrington's stated support of Monty for a wild card last time out, and of course Harrington belongs more to the genre of his Captain and vice Captains.
But Monty has always struck me as an extremely passionate/ competitive Ryder Cup man
I cannot believe he would jeopordise victory with a 'jobs for the boys' selection policy
Remember he has brought Garcia in as a motivating vice Captain, and the Spaniard wouldn't be that chummy with PH

Perhaps the selection policy does need overhaul...perhaps the Captain should have had 4 picks? Seems to me Monty was stuck between a rock and a hard place and a Harrington omission would have yielded as much controversy.

So splendido, you now have a beef with the timing of the announcement. Seriously? Should the announcement have been scheduled to suit those 4 who chose to play in the barclays when they were fully aware of its timing beforehand. You've alluded to Casey's alleged lack of popularity but then, bizzarely claim that if this counted against him it was even more of a disgrace. Your outrage over his omission and Harrington's inclusion suggests that no amount of persuasive argument by anyone would change your mind.

Less talk about Harrington and more about the Molinari brothers please. I hope Monty lets them out early, they're brilliant golfers, young, full of confidence and a perfect pairing. What other pairing can claim such an intimate knowledge of a partner's game, should be a lot of fun watching them throttle some Yanks. But if we have to talk about the gaff then Casey has been hard done by and so has the team, don't think Rose is in the same boat but a qualification process that puts Hanson in and leaves Rose or Casey out has to be questioned, no disrespect to Hanson.

Also nice to hear Azinger whining already, watched an American commentator trying to talk it up the other day too, love it, it's good to hear them squealing.