GOLF/TOUR NEWS:COREY PAVIN has a couple of important items in his diary today: one, he will attend the New York Stock Exchange – ironic in its way given the straitened times being experienced by the USPGA Tour – where he will divulge his four "wild card" picks for next month's Ryder Cup; secondly, and less importantly, he will perform the ceremonial opening pitch in baseball later in the day for the New York Yankees.
The wild card selection is likely to prove the more difficult task.
Unlike Europe’s captain, Colin Montgomerie, however, Pavin’s choices of possible wild card picks are, well, slim pickings.
While Europeans can’t stop winning – Martin Kaymer, Edoardo Molinari, Miguel Angel Jimenez, etc, etc, inside the last month alone – there is a dearth, Matt Kuchar aside, of US players gate-crashing the winner’s enclosure in recent weeks and months.
The first name to be unfurled by Pavin shouldn’t surprise anyone. Tiger Woods failed to qualify by right for the team, but he is the world’s number one – and, even if he has struggled to put four rounds together since returning to competition after his personal travails, there is enough fire in his belly and sufficient evidence that some of the old magic is returning for him to be not left behind.
Pavin can’t and won’t leave him out.
After Woods, the consensus is there are up to five players in line for the other three picks: Zach Johnson, who is strongly favoured to get the nod; last year’s British Open champion, Stewart Cink; the talented Sean O’Hair, who nevertheless has a serious question mark over his putting; Anthony Kim, the young talisman from Valhalla but who has struggled to regain sharpness since undergoing surgery in mid-season; and the exciting and talented Rickie Fowler, a player who took a 100 per cent record away from last year’s Walker Cup match.
Will Pavin be brave and go for youth?
Or will he stand by experience in selecting his picks to go alongside Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jeff Overton and Steve Stricker?
Pavin, who met and chatted with potential picks prior to the Deutsche Bank in Boston before heading down to New York for a pre-announcement weekend break with his family, claimed he was “looking for someone who I think can handle Ryder Cup pressure in Europe. If that’s a rookie, that’s fine. If it’s not, that’s fine.”
All will be revealed in the NYSE – but, unlike Monty who had to leave out the likes of Paul Casey and Justin Rose, Pavin’s selections, one way or the other, are unlikely to create the same shockwaves.
His hand, for sure, appears to be the weaker one.
Of those believed to be under consideration by Pavin, although he insisted ahead of the Deutsche Bank tournament nobody had been promised a pick, only two of them – Johnson and Kim – have won on tour this season. But Johnson’s win in the Colonial tournament came back in May, and Kim’s in the Houston Open was achieved in April before he underwent surgery.
If he was to be brave, Pavin could go for Fowler, a player in line to be named “Rookie of the year” on the PGA Tour after a seamless move into the professional ranks. But that could be too bold a move for a captain, and it would seem Woods and the consistent Johnson are the front runners for picks, with Cink possibly favoured for the third.
Only Pavin know how he will show his hand.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Martin Kaymer – who currently heads the European Tour’s Order of Merit – returns to competition for the first time since capturing the USPGA title when he competes in this week’s KLM Dutch Open at Hilversumsche.
British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen is also in the field, where there is an eight-strong Irish contingent consisting of Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Michael Hoey, Gareth Maybin and Simon Thornton.
England’s Simon Dyson, who missed out in his quest to make Europe’s Ryder Cup team, defends the title in a tournament which has proven immensely rewarding for him: he has won two play-offs, in 2006 and again last year, when the tournament was staged at Kennemer.
Italian teenager Matteo Manassero is also in the field, on the back of a tied-third place finish behind Jimenez in the Swiss Alps which moved him from 127th to 89th in the money list and within touching distance of guaranteeing his full tour card for next season.
It also puts him in line to make a late charge to get into the field for the Dubai World Championship, which is confined to the top 60 on the Order of Merit.
Kaymer and Oosthuizen have also confirmed they will join US Open champion Graeme McDowell in the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament at Sheshan on November 4th-7th, which is likely to have a crucial influence in determining the Race to Dubai standings.
Woods, Mickelson, Mahan (winner of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Ian Poulter (who claimed the WGC-Accenture) are also confirmed, as is Lee Westwood, who is recuperating from a calf injury ahead of the Ryder Cup.
Rory McIlroy guaranteed his place when winning the Quail Hollow championship.
The event is confined to winners on the European Tour and the US Tour, but there is a backdoor route into the field for players inside the world’s top 25 who have not won a tournament this season which could yet get Pádraig Harrington in to the event.
