John Huggan: Monty's tough choice

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 18:26

What a difference nine years can make. When it comes to the Ryder Cup anyway. Back in 2001, the then European skipper Sam Torrance was forced to "burn" one of his two wild-card picks on Sergio Garcia, then the third-ranked player in the world. Clearly, if the qualifying system was failing to identify such a high-profile performer then that qualifying system just wasn't working.

Now fast forward to today, or at least to four weeks from now, when the latest Scot charged with leading the old world into battle against the United States, Colin Montgomerie, will sit down at Gleneagles and name the three men he thinks best complement the nine automatic qualifiers. No easy task. Unlike the obvious choice presented to Torrance, Monty's requires some hard thinking.

Albeit there are five lucrative events left to play - including one World Golf Championship and a major, the USPGA Championship - and the current situation will surely change more than once before D (decision)-Day, chances are the eight-time European No.1's options/nightmare will be such that at least three, maybe four or five, of Europe's elite are going to be missing when the squad assembles at Celtic Manor late in September. Never before has competition for places been so fierce.

Take the present situation. As things stand, there are five European players - Paul Casey, Edoardo Molinari, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson - ranked amongst the planet's top-25, yet none can, right this minute, be guaranteed a spot in Wales. Add in the likes of Robert Karlsson, Ross Fisher, Alvaro Quiros, Garcia and Rhys Davies and the magnitude of Monty's task becomes even more obvious.

In contrast, any selectorial dilemma faced by US captain Corey Pavin is more likely to be along the lines of "is there anyone out there with a pair of shoes who can play golf?" Even Tiger Woods is struggling to qualify. At present, the world No.1 is clinging to the eighth and final automatic spot on Pavin's on-the-face-of-it meagre squad. So, on paper at least, the European side will start the biennial contest as the heaviest of favourites.

Being considered all but sure-fire winners is not necessarily the best pre-match scenario, of course. For one thing, such assumptions have a tendency to backfire when match play golf over 18-hole sprints is the order of what will be three long and pressure-packed days on the links. And for another, the non-playing captain of the said dead-certs has already been making too many overly-confident comments, even before the identities of the 12-strong sides are known.He should know better by now, but he doesn't.

Perhaps the only thing making Monty's job easier at this point is the fact that he can so easily discount those European players who choose to ply their trades exclusively on the PGA Tour and who, as a not indirect consequence, are ranked outside the world's top-50. Despite the fact that the home side is billed as "Europe" and not the "European Tour", a combination of cliquishness and protectionism all but excludes men such as Carl Pettersson, Fredrik Jacobsen and Richard Johnson from consideration. Put it this way, executive director George O'Grady and his green-jacketed henchmen will not be falling over themselves in an effort to promote the credentials of any of the above.

This small-mindedness is particularly egregious in the case of Pettersson, who last week added the Canadian Open to his growing portfolio of titles. Consider this: the 32-year-old Swede has now won four times on the world's biggest, most lucrative and most competitive circuit. That's the same number of US victories as Luke Donald and Rose combined. Or one more than the total amassed by either of those two added to Casey. Or, only one fewer than the five "accumulated" by the three Englishmen who will surely loom large in the Monty mind between now and 29 August.

You get the point. Parochialism and, whisper it, a British/Irish bias is alive and well on the "European" Tour. If it wasn't, Jose Maria Olazabal, a Spaniard who more than once has found himself disagreeing with policies emanating from the Tour's cozy Wentworth headquarters, would likely be leading this year's Ryder Cup side. Indeed, the absence of a man who commands the whole-hearted respect of every player on both sides of the Atlantic - in stark contrast to the present incumbent - is nothing short of disgraceful and testimony to the dark fact that seedy politics are alive and well in European golf.

Just as transparently tacky is the now protracted process of choosing future Ryder Cup venues. What a laugh that is. Ignoring almost completely the typical lack of quality in the courses involved - the last time a top-class track hosted a European home game was as far back as Walton Heath in 1981; since then unremitting rubbish in the shape of the Belfry (ugh), Valderrama (yuk), the K Club (double-yuk), Celtic Manor (pulleez) and, coming up four years from now, the fourth best course in Auchterarder - the relevant Tour brass work through a series of visits and press conferences until, as if by magic, they identify the country/course/venue willing to pay the most money for the privilege of hosting the matches. It really is remarkable how often that happens.

Still, given that the European Tour's four-year budget cycle is built almost completely upon the rock that is Ryder Cup revenues, it is hard to blame officials for scrambling to ensure that every ounce of income is wrung from every home match.Which is why, months before a ball is struck, the tour's estimable media department is busy issuing press releases announcing the latest Ryder Cup "partnership". Just about the only thing missing from the list of "official" merchandise is a signed photograph of Monty in a kilt.

In that vein, of course, we recently had the official announcement of the three vice-captains who will stand alongside Monty. Also known as "manoeuvering into position for the number one job in 2014", this relatively pointless exercise revealed only that Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn quite fancy the prospect of earning an estimated 1m in the two years leading up to the 2014 matches at Gleneagles. All of which is a long way from the mid-90s when then skipper Bernard Gallacher quietly called his vice-captains on the phone.

Still, for all the tackiness that now surrounds the Ryder Cup, it remains professional golf's most fun event to watch - when it is closely fought, anyway. Nothing is better than the sight of highly paid golfers all but throwing up on themselves in an effort to win nothing more tangible than an abstract point for a team. Actually, one thing just might be - watching them throwing up on themselves in an effort to qualify for the opportunity to throw up on themselves all over again in October. The new few weeks are going to be, as ever, interesting.