European Ryder Cup team

On Wednesday, the press was having a field day peppering Colin Montgomerie about his 3 captain's picks. After 2 days at the Johnnie Walker Championship things have cleared up quite a bit, taking some heat off the Scotsman.

EURO team on points: Westwood, McIlroy, Kaymer, McDowell, Poulter, R. Fisher, Fr. Molinari, Hanson.

European tour candidates: Ed. Molinari, Alvaro Quiros.
PGA tour EUROS candidates: Harrington, Casey Rose, Donald.

J. Walker through 2 rounds:
Leaders -9; Jimenez, Ed. Molinari, Dyson -6, Quiros -1

Barclays through 2 rounds:
Leader -8; Harrington -5, Casey -4, Rose -1, Donald E

Quiros' chances at this point are slim, so...

Should Ed. Molinari or Dyson win out, Jimenez needs a finish in the top 9, would secure the last auto slot on points.

If Molinari or Dyson don't win, Jimenez will stay in that last slot.

Say Jimenez holds onto the 9th slot.

Harrington owns 3 majors and put himself in contention at the Barclays, which probably gets him the first captain's pick

If Ed. Molinari has a top 5, plus his history of working well with his brother Fr. Molinari--stands a good chance to get the second captain's pick.

That would mean a 3-way competition between Casey who leads Rose by 3 strokes and Donald by 4.

As of Friday night it looks like: Harrington, Casey and Molinari will be Montgomerie's picks.

There will be some hubbub about Rose & Donald not making it. Neither went back to Europe to try winning the slot outright, neither has lit it up enough to finish high at the Barclays.

Donald is steady, Rose can be explosive but Ed. Molinari with a good weekend will have earned a wild card pick onto the team. Ed. Molinari this season has a win at the Scottish Open, 3rd at the Scandinavian Masters.

Rose would be very unlucky to be left out given his fine form this year.

id also go for Molinari, Harrington & Casey

The Fighting Molinaris are currently 1-2 and going out in the last group tomorrow at Gleneagles. Jimenez is tied for eighth, but I'm confident Edoardo is a safe captain's pick even if the Mechanic manages to hold onto the last AQ spot. Miguel Angel is probably safe too, so that leaves two captain's picks available to the four Europeans in New Jersey this week, which could become just one if Simon Dyson comes from behind to win tomorrow morning.

Rose is coming on strong in the 3rd round at The Barclays. I wouldn't want to be Monty.

Im rooting for the Euro's this year. I like the comraderie that they bring to the matches and the fun they have together off the course.

I would sooner have Rose than Harrington.Casey and E molinari would be great.

maybe if it was being played over in America but over here Paddy has to play for me

I'll be rooting harder for the Americans than I ever have before. The last thing I want is for Monte to captain the winning team. I can't stand him.

Yeah, but at least he's not playing.

Hole by hole--who's up, who's down in this sweepstakes for a captain's pick.

My guess is Harrington with 3 majors wins and E. Molinari with his form and partnership with his brother (barring an awful final round) will be in.

Dyson wins, Jimenez on the borderline of 8th in the tournament means he could drop out of the automatic spot which would put Montgomerie in a pickle.

Dyson not winning is the simplest scenario, meaning Rose -7, Casey -5, Donald -3 are still fighting over the last slot.

Rose 2009: Masters T-20, US T-108, British T-13, PGA T-81
2010: Masters DNP, US 157, British 78, PGA 99
2010: W Memorial, AT&T;

Scoring avg: 69.81, driving distance: 287 yrds, GIR: 67.45, scrambling: 64.27, putts per round 28.73

Paul Casey 2009: Masters T-20, US T-122, British T-47, PGA DNP
2010: Masters 80, US 40, British 3, PGA 12
2010: 2nd match play, 3rd British well back of winner Oosthuizen.

Scoring avg: 70.26, driving distance 295.8, GIR 68.25%, scrambling 60%, putts per round 29.17.

Luke Donald 2009 Masters T-38, US T-61, British T-5, PGA T-43
2010 Masters 54, US 47, British 11, PGA 109
2010 Season W Madrid masters, 2nd Riviera, T3 Harbour Town, 3. Canadian
Open.

Scoring avg. 70.62, driving distance 276.4, GIR: 64.96%, scrambling 66.16%, putts per round 28.56.

Each of these 3 players brings different strengths and weaknesses to the table. Rose has the 2 wins, good all-around stats and his previous partnership with Poulter in other match play events. He is still relatively uncapped at the Ryder Cup however and the team has a bunch of new faces on it.

Casey is the best ball striker of the three, a Ryder Cup vet, and come the closest to contending for majors. His bugaboo is still the putter however and his 2010 season has only been ok, with no wins.

Donald has had good results at three very good courses this year in Riviera, Harbour Town and St. George in Canada. The strength of his game is putting. However he is the shortest hitter of the three and Celtic Manor is more of a long hitting American-style course the other 2 might be better at handling.

It's a shootout between the three on a fine course at Ridgewood and where the scoreboard has shown good shots are rewarded and misses shots are punished. Superb grounds to determine what could be the last slot on the European team.

Got to be molinari (ryder cup is 4 doubles matches and only one singles). The molinaris should play in at least 3 of the 4.

Then Justin rose as THE in form player.

And finally need a senior player to be in field motivator. Probably harrington, but better could be langer. He's won two senior majors this year and hence has some form.

Plus whoever gets there automatically from dyson and jimenez.

i think Monty already knows who he's going to pick, and i dont think he's taken any notice of whats going on at the barclays, i mean he's announcing his picks at 6.00 here (1.00 ET) so even if justin rose comes from behind to win at the barclays it will make no difference as the picks will already have been announced

As of 11:30 am Sunday EST, 4:30 in London the scores at the Johnnie:

Rumfield -9 though 18, Jimenez - 7 through 18, Ed. Molinari -7 though 15, Dyson -6 through 17.

Unless Ed. Molinari goes over the last 3 holes to force a playoff it looks like Rumfield will be the winner. Dyson fell away from contention today. Jimenez looks like he'll finish in a tie for second.

Projected captain's picks: Harrington, E. Molinari and Rose.

Montgomerie is schedule to announce his selctions at 8 pm London time, 3 PM EST.

As of 11:45 EST Donald -3 is taking the course, at selection time will be 3 hours or approximately 12 holes into his round which will give Montgomerie a fair idea of where he is in the standings.

Casey - 5 will take the course at 12:20 pm and at selection time will be 2 hours and 40 minutes or approximately 10 holes into his round.

Rose -7 will take the course at 1:30 pm and at selection time will be 1 hours 30 minutes into his round or approximately 6 holes into his round.

Unless Donald burns Ridgewood up with birdies today I think he's out.

Thus it comes down to Rose and Casey. I know the European tour wants to emphasize those who play in Europe and want to make the press announcement while everyone is still gathered at Gleneagles and to lead into the sports news of this evening. Still, to not till the results of the Barclays seems slightly eye raising to me.

My wild guess: Harrington, Ed. Molinari, Rose.

Casey and perhaps Langer with his 2 senior wins will be on Montgomerie's list.

if edoardo isnt picked after that today it would be criminal, and bogie are you sure its scheduled for 8.00 because everyone here's saying its 6.00

Just as the prognosticator above says Donald is out unless he rakes in birdies today, he goes 3-under for his first three holes.

Update: Donald is now 4-under through four holes.

Re-update: 5-under through five holes now! Are you kidding me?

Moved back to 6:30 because molinari won.

He would be wise to wait until the end of the Barclays to make his picks. There's still a lot of golf left to be played by the guys vying for those last two spots.

Case in point: tix straight birdies to start now for Luke Donald. He's on fire! He's a machine! In fact, I'm looking at the World Ranking points right now, and Donald can pass Graeme McDowell for the fourth guaranteed spot from that list if he finishes where he is right now. McDowell would in turn take Peter Hanson's spot on the European money list, and it would be Hanson on the outside looking in, which one would think is it for him, but remember that he's won twice this year.