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Mox · #11 (**permalink**) 09-03-2006, 07:20 PM

There are some interesting aspects of the captains picks.

Certainly, having Darren Clarke on the team is taking a huge chance on things.
- It is only weeks since the sad passing of his wife, and nobody could blame him for being affected by that.
- He's been away from tournament play for a while, and will only manage one tournament before the Ryder Cup.
- Several players outrank him. Paul Broadhurst and Johan Edfors both outrank Clarke on BOTH the rankings in play (World points and European points lists), and swedish/american Carl Pettersson has almost double the winnings per tournament played compared to Clarke on the PGA tour.

Westwood too is outranked by many other players, but
- Has 4 Ryder Cup caps.
- Has won twice at the K club.

I must confess ... I'm worried about Clarke. Not about his skill-level and abilities. I'm worried if he's really ready, and if his situation can end up landing him the role as scapegoat.

If he loses his first fourball, everybody will begin to question if he's ready, and that will put a LOT of ADDED pressure on his shoulders.
Lose the evening foursomes and the press will be screaming for him to be benched on saturday.
Lose the sunday singles, and see Europe lose the cup by 1 point ... and it'll be "all his fault".

I just don't think it's a huge risk for Clarke, himself, and for the european side.

Anyway ... we now know the players of the European Ryder Cup Team.

They are (in order of qualification):

Luke Donald
Sergio Garcia
Henrik Stenson
David Howell
Colin Montgomerie
Robert Karlsson
Paul Casey
Padraig Harrington
Paul McGinley
Jose Maria Olazabal
Darren Clarke (wild card)
Lee Westwood (wild card)

They will face the US team of

Tiger Woods
Phil Mickelson
Jim Furyk
Chad Campbell
David Toms
Chris DiMarco
Vaughn Taylor
J.J. Henry
Zach Johnson
Brett Wetterich
Scott Verplank (wild card)
Stewart Cink (wild card)