After the Simon Cowell like performance from Colin Montgomereie after the enthraling finish of the Johnnie Walker Championship, now Corey Pavin, the US Captain, has announced his Ryder cup wildcard picks it is perfect to take a look and compare the two sides that will competing this year at Celtic Manor Resort in the city of Newport, South Wales.
The US and the European sides look remarkably similar, US having 5 rookies this year, 4 Top 10 players in the World Rankings including one who required a captain's pick, Tiger Woods. Now compare this with a European side having 6 rookies this year, 4 Top 10 players in the World Rankings also with one who required a captain's pick, Luke Donald. They both also contain a recent Major champions requiring captain's picks with Pavin picking Stuart Cink and Monty picking Padraig Harrington.
The European side is one that is looking in form, five players who have won events since the start of August, Ross Fisher won the Irish Open, Martin Kaymer was victorious in the USPGA Championship, Peter Hanson claimed the Czech Open and Molinari took the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and Miguel Angel Jimenez finally mastered the the European Masters last weekend. Monty should also be happy that Luke Donald finished tied 2nd on Sunday as well. With Lee Westwood and Pádraig Harrington recent performances at Majors Monty need not worry about these two, that just leaves Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter all which have had solid performances this year giving them high World Rankings 7, 14, 12 respectively. With all his rookies in form Monty won't be losing any sleep over them before 1st October.
The US team is a mostly similar situation with a few notatable exceptions, with four out Pavin twelve, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, finishing in the Top 10 of the USPGA Championship Pavin can be happy with their form. Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and Steve Stricker have played a consistantly high level of golf this year and their form should not be questioned. What should be questioned are they captain's picks, Pavin has choosen Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler, with the exception of Zach Johnson who has shown recent form the other three picks are most definitely gambles.
Stewart Cink is having his worst season since 2003 only 3 Top 10 finishes and only another 10 Top 25 finishes this year, looking at that you would think he must have a good Ryder cup record then, well you'd be wrong he has a pick up 6 points from 15 matches over 4 ryder cups so far thats a 40% record. Then there is Tiger Woods most probably the greatest golfer of all time but at the moment he is terribly inconsistant, even when he was playing at his best he never played well at the Ryder cup he has lost 13 out of his 25 matches, only Raymond Floyd has lost more,16. And finally Rickie Fowler if ever there was a difining player who came from left field to get picked I would go for Rickie Fowler, aged only 21, he turned pro in 2009 is in his first season on the PGA Tour and hasn't won a professional tournament to date.
After looking deeply at the two sides I can only see a win for Europe at Celtic Manor and a return of the cup, but if all sports results went the way the stats predicted then sport wouldn't be worth watching. There will always be a player who plays out of his skin and one who under performs, all I know is that I will can't wait for the 1st October.
and that translates into making what bets?
ReplyDelete