Wildcard race reaches boiling point

Paul Casey, Darren Clarke or Ian Poulter?

Those three names will have Nick Faldo’s head spinning this week as he tries to determine which two he should make wildcard selections to complete the European team for the Ryder Cup match at Valhalla, Kentucky next month.

They are three big names, all with their merits for being selected, who have left their Ryder Cup fates in the hands of Faldo, the six-time major winner, and no slouch in the Ryder Cup neither having won 11 caps against the United States.

Seven players are already assured of selection through either the world or European points lists.

They are: Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington, the Irishman who has elevated his game to such an extent that with three major titles out of the last six contested, he is now the leading contender to Tiger Woods’ dominance.

Those at Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles seeking to still play their way into the three remaining spots are Justin Rose, Soren Hansen, Oliver Wilson, Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty.

Only a catastrophe can prevent Rose making a belated Ryder Cup debut, and it is to be hoped that this fierce competitor finally gets a chance to get stuck into the Americans.

It would also be good to see Martin Kaymer join the party after two wins this year that have shown what a promising talent this young German is.

That leaves one of Hansen, Wilson, Fisher or Dougherty to make up the qualifying 10, all of them potential rookies but with experienced campaigners like Harrington and Westwood to feed off, that shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

One man who could still have played his way onto the team was Poulter, until he elected to stay in America and play in the second leg of the FedEx Cup play-off series.

That could prove a foolish move even for a man who showed potential Ryder Cup temperament by holing a 15-foot putt on the 72nd green at Royal Birkdale just last month.

Ignoring the chance to play his way in might tip the balance in favour of Clarke, who a month ago was considered a long shot, but now after his runaway victory at the Dutch Open, is considered the man in form.

Casey has shown considerable improvement in recent weeks and while he remains winless, his role in Europe’s record equalling victory at the K Club two year ago was inspirational and passionate.

One name missing of course is Colin Montgomerie, or field marshall Montgomerie as he should be known in the Ryder Cup.

It’s unlikely he will make it onto the slip of paper Nick Faldo issues to the press on Sunday evening.

The proud Scot, whose Ryder Cup record is used as a leveller against those who have won the majors that have so often eluded him, has struggled all season with his game, and not even a win in his native land this week would elevate him into the top 10.

It might make Faldo think though. Let’s hope so, because no-one encapsulates the Ryder Cup spirit better than Monty, Europe’s on-course general, who has led from the front in past Ryder Cups, notably in 2002 when his resounding victory over Scott Hoch at the top of the singles order set the tone for Sam Torrance’s side’s narrow victory and the subsequent years of unprecedented dominance for Team Europe.

So who would my picks be, and who do I think Faldo will go with?

For me, it should be CASEY and CLARKE, but I think the captain will go with CASEY and POULTER.

Another chance for England's 'future' stars

ENGLAND’S young pretenders get another chance to axe the word ‘future’ from the prefix they are always labelled with, when the US Open tees off in a few hours.

Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter are four men who have carried around the tag of ‘future major champions’ for long enough now.

Each of them has put themselves in a position to win, or at least challange down the stretch in one of the game’s grand slams, but each time they have faded away.

Add Lee Westwood to that group and you have a man who has won 29 times worldwide and is one of the continent’s greatest finishers, but even he falls short in the majors.

Perhaps adding Poulter to that list is a little ambitious considering he only has one top 10 in 23 appearances in the majors, but the fact that he has missed the cut only three times speaks volumes for his consistency.

When compared with Rose, Casey and Donald he has never really threatened to take a big title.

Rose was crowned European No 1 last October thanks largely to his performances in the majors.

He stood on the 17th at Augusta last year needing a birdie-par finish to force a play-off with Zach Johnson. In those circumstances you have to go for it, he did and unfortunately ran up a double bogey, but in doing so showed he had the bottle to at least put his game on the line.

He finished 10th at the US Open - he was fifth on his US Open debut at Olympia Fields in 2003 - and 12th at the Open and US PGA, a fine accomplishment that saw him as one of only seven men to make the cut in all four majors last year.

One of those was of course Tiger Woods, but Rose was in good company, Westwood, Poulter and Casey being the others.

Casey finished 10th in both the Masters and US Open last year, and has led majors before. At Augusta two months ago, he called a penalty on himself when the ball moved less than a milimetre, a decision that effectively ended his chances, but showed the character and sportsmanship a golfer possesses.

Donald is undergoing something of a slump having not won a tournament since the Honda Classic in 2006, and not challenged in a major since finishing third to Woods at the USPGA at the back end of that year.

However, all five of those Englishmen have the sort of game you need to excel in a US Open, accuracy and putting.

They’ve all had a sniff of what it’s like to contend, they just need to grab the chance.

Also working in their favour is that at 1.14pm west coast time in America, Poulter, Casey and Donald all tee off together as a threeball.

For the first two days they can relax in each other’s company, shut out the tournament rhetoric, the clatter of the huge leaderboards being changed and the smell of the catering vans, and just concentrate on playing some good golf.

And who knows, this time next week, one of them might have erased the word ‘future’ from their title.