GOLF TOUR NEWS:NATURALLY ENOUGH, given the venue for this week's European Tour event, the Ryder Cup – all of four months away – is starting to stir some thoughts in players' minds, even if there are a number of significant absentees on this week's dry run in the Wales Open over the revamped TwentyTen Course at Celtic Manor.
Not one for being shy in coming forward, Europe’s captain Colin Montgomerie yesterday defended the strength of the field for this week’s Wales Open.
“Considering we are opposite the Memorial tournament in the States, which is one of the biggest events of the year on the PGA Tour, I’m delighted with who is playing in what will be the strongest gathering for the Wales Open in a long while. I had a look at the current top 20 in the Ryder Cup standings and 12 will be in Wales,” said Montgomerie.
Two of those who won’t be there include Rory McIlroy, who starts a three-week stint in the US with an appearance at the Memorial, and Pádraig Harrington, who underwent keyhole surgery on his knee last week. The Dubliner is recuperating from the procedure this week in the Caribbean before returning to tournament action at next week’s St Jude Classic in Memphis, which will serve as his only preparatory outing ahead of the following week’s US Open at Pebble Beach.
Harrington, incidentally, slipped outside of an automatic place on Monty’s team following Luke Donald’s win in the Madrid Masters: he is currently fifth in the world points list (from which the first four automatic places come) and 10th in the European points (which provide the next five automatic tickets on to Montgomerie’s team). The captain, of course, has three “wild card” picks but will have noted that the likes of Harrington, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson are all outside the automatic places as of now. It sure is making for an interesting run-in over the summer!
For now, Donald is the one to have made the most significant moves of recent weeks with his runner-up finish to Simon Khan in the BMW PGA at Wentworth followed by an impressive win in the Madrid Masters which saw him return back to the world’s top 10. Donald again remains in Europe for this week’s Wales Open, resisting the lure of playing in Jack Nicklaus’s tournament, and hopes to put down another marker for Montgomerie.
“It’s really important for me to make the team, and that was one of the reasons in my decision to play at Celtic Manor . . . I’ve had probably two of the best experiences on a golf course in the Ryder Cup in 2004 and 2006 and I think sometimes having a great team experience can spur you on in your individual game,” said the Englishman, now up to ninth in the world having been 18th just a fortnight ago.
Donald’s win in Madrid was his first in four years, going back to the Honda Classic in 2006, while his last in Europe was in Switzerland in 2004. Following last year’s British Open at Turnberry, where Donald was fifth, an American golf writer coined the phrase “Luke Donald Disease” in pointing him out as an example of players who earned a lot of money without winning very often. “It was a bad article, wrong. I don’t listen to my critics too much but it was frustrating for myself not having won in four years,” he commented.
He added: “Hopefully I can have another good week in Wales and continue to catch Colin’s eye. It’s great to be in the automatic team placings at the moment but I have got to try and ensure that I stay there.”
McDowell, up to 44th in the latest world rankings on the back of his fourth-place finish in Madrid, heads a 10-strong Irish contingent in Celtic Manor. which includes former Ryder Cup hero Philip Walton. The Dubliner has been given a sponsor’s invitation into the event, a rare appearance on the main tour. Former winner Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin, Simon Thornton and Gary Murphy are also in the €2 million tournament.
Meanwhile, a North-South edge has been given to the annual Lough Erne Challenge which will be staged at the Co Fermanagh resort on July 21st, three days after the British Open finishes. Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke will team-up to take on Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry in a fourball match over the Nick Faldo-designed course. Tickets for the match went on sale yesterday, with an attendance limit of 5,000.
