Woosnam - demand for loyalty
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Selection for the European team to defend the Ryder Cup in Ireland is only a couple of months away - after the BMW International on September 3 - and the team is shaping up with an unfamiliar look to it.
Captain Ian Woosnam has already informed some of the established stars that their inclusion is no guarantee unless they start producing more support to the European Tour instead of chasing the dollar in the United States.
And that means he wants to see more of the likes of Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Greg Owen, Brian Davis and Justin Rose heading through Heathrow's passport control with a little more loyalty to declare.
The success at The Belfry yesterday of little-known Johan Edfors, the retro Swede, with an agricultural swing and hippie hairstyle, further confirmed Woosie's fears that he may have to dig deep for experience within his captain's picks if Europe is to defend the Cup successfully.
And it's looking increasingly likely that Lee Westwood, himself a raw rookie when he partnered Nick Faldo at Valderrama in 1999, may have played his fourth and last Ryder Cup.
The captain has implied that players who have played mainly on the PGA Tour and fail to make it by the world points route by that September deadline would not be his first choices when his wild card picks are made for the September 22-24 clash at Dublin's K Club.
He will use the European Tour annual dinner later this month, just before the BMW Championship at Wentworth, when all Europe's top players attend, to get his message across, but issued his early warning that disloyalty to the European Tour won't be tolerated.
However Westwood was in defiant mood when asked about his plans.
"I'm not prepared to change my schedule for the sake of playing in one week's golf," said Westwood. "I have the future to plan and I set out my stall last year to give it a few years in America and I'm going to stick to that."
As for Harrington, he backs Woosnam's stand and this week (like Westwood) will be competing in the Nissan Irish Open at Carlton house.
"It's up to everyone to try to play their way into the team," he says "leave Woosie to pick the form players on the edge of top rankings."
The 12-man team will be decided from the top five in a world points list and top five from the European points list - with the captain getting two wild cards.
If the team were picked tomorrow the world list would be Henrik Stenson, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie and Luke Donald, while the top European scorers would be David Howell, Paul McGinley, Paul Broadhurst, Paul Casey and Nick Dougherty. The likely picks would be Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington.
However, there's still much golf to play and Westwood, Niclas Fasth, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Thomas Bjorn, Graeme McDowell, Thomas Levet, Owen, Poulter and Edfors are also likely to make a big effort. And don't rule out Kenneth Ferrie and the mercurial Jean Van de Velde.
Checking my crystal ball, my team would be: Stenson, Olazabal, Garcia, Montgomerie, Donald, Howell, Casey, Clarke, Harrington, Fasth, Jimenez, McGinley.
Tell us your likely team, on the forum.
