Ryder Cup - Wildcard Picks

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Rikand

ziggy wrote: »

Popular in Ireland maybe, nowhere else!

Picking Harrington wouldnt make anyone popular, anywhere.

Mushy

Surely Gallgher will get a pick now. He had a tough task to do this week, and is challenging up to the very end, he is local guy who knows the course, is in some form. Not like he is falling way short. Must be between Gallgher/McDowell, one will get in automatically, the other will be a pick.

SuprSi

Mushy wrote: »

Surely Gallgher will get a pick now. He had a tough task to do this week, and is challenging up to the very end, he is local guy who knows the course, is in some form. Not like he is falling way short. Must be between Gallgher/McDowell, one will get in automatically, the other will be a pick.

He's really done all he could today, with great pressure on him.

Rikand

McGinley said at the start of the week he wanted people in contention for the team to stand up and play. Stevie has done exactly that.

RikkFlair

Rikand wrote: »

How can he NOT be considered!

I meant to say I wonder if McGinley will pick him, he'll be considered no matter what happens this week.

Mushy

SuprSi wrote: »

He's really done all he could today, with great pressure on him.

That's exactly what I mean. Howell today is on some crazy good run, and Gallagher is keeping up, so he should get pick no. 1.

SuprSi

Well done Mr. G - fully deserves his wildcard spot after that brave showing.

Speak Now

Superb effort by Gallacher, surely a shoe in for a wild card. No way the English guys out of form can all be picked.

vienne86

Gallacher really deserves the pick - hard not to pick him really.

Woodgate

Gallagher
Poulter

Then it's a tough one as Donald & Westwood have bee poor this year, with Westwood being possibly the better of the two, but his putting is so poor. Possibly Molinari might come into the equation. So, I know I'm probably wrong but I'll say third pick will be.....

Westwood

Rikand

Westwood not playing italy this week makes me think hes been told he'll be picked.

I hope gallagher poulter donald

I reckon gallagher poulter Westwood

SaveOurLyric

Woodgate wrote: »

So, I know I'm probably wrong but I'll say third pick will be.....

Westwood

God, I hope you are wrong. Westy would be a liability.
Donald or Molinari both have cases. West has none. You may as well say pick Faldo and Olazabal.

Mushy

Were wildcards a few years not done on day of last counting competition? I want to find out now!

syngindub

looks a certain Gallacher & poulter , now we need McGinley to show his biased side and pick Lowrey

First Up

syngindub wrote: »

looks a certain Gallacher & poulter , now we need McGinley to show his biased side and pick Lowrey

Funny

First Up

syngindub wrote: »

looks a certain Gallacher & poulter , now we need McGinley to show his biased side and pick Lowrey

Funny

NaiveMelodies

No no. Surely Langer will be picked as some geniuses suggested.

Gallacher, Poulter, Langer.

Rikand

Mushy wrote: »

Were wildcards a few years not done on day of last counting competition? I want to find out now!

They were. But Tuesday is a typically boring day in the sporting world so they've pushed it back to then for a bit of media drama and excitement

vienne86

only1stevo wrote: »

No no. Surely Langer will be picked as some geniuses suggested.

Gallacher, Poulter, Langer.

Roll on Tuesday! We can then stop reading some silly speculative posts!

Mushy

Rikand wrote: »

They were. But Tuesday is a typically boring day in the sporting world so they've pushed it back to then for a bit of media drama and excitement

Sounds good, ramp up the excitement.

vienne86 wrote: »

Roll on Tuesday! We can then stop reading some silly speculative posts!

Bar the speculation regarding who will play with who, who we would want to see European lads come up against, how much whichever team are gonna win by. The silliness is about to begin.

slave1

PGA event runs into Monday due to Labour Day so I'd say that's also a reason e.g. Poulter wins, he's in.

I think folk are being pretty harsh on Westy, he has a better record than Poults and Donald in the majors this year and his putting has not been that bad at all, he also has a quite decent number of worldwide victories and a lot of RC experience.

I'm assuming Gallagher gets his pick and really any two of the obvious three will do fine. It's tight between Luke and Westy, that's the way I see it.

First Up

slave1 wrote: »

PGA event runs into Monday due to Labour Day so I'd say that's also a reason e.g. Poulter wins, he's in.

I think folk are being pretty harsh on Westy, he has a better record than Poults and Donald in the majors this year and his putting has not been that bad at all, he also has a quite decent number of worldwide victories and a lot of RC experience.

I'm assuming Gallagher gets his pick and really any two of the obvious three will do fine. It's tight between Luke and Westy, that's the way I see it.

Inclined to agree. Not picking Gallacher would be an outrage. I'd go for Poulter
and Donald but Westwood has delivered many times.
Form has to count though

billy3sheets

Gallagher
Poulter
Luiten

First Up

billy3sheets wrote: »

Gallagher
Poulter
Luiten

We are all buying into the assumption that Poulter is a cert. I would probably pick him but listening to McGinley today, I wouldn't call it a done deal.

arkslippy123

He should pick gallacher, apart from his determination to qualify, hes a Scot and that is worth a vote for home support. ID also go for Westwood and poulter. Hard on molinari though. Very strong team either way.

Slicemeister

Poulter's form and especially today hasn't been any way great. the pressure he showed himself to be under on the course suggests he hasn't gotten any phone call from McGinley either. Unfortunately for the likes of Molinari,I think he's gonna get the nod along with Westwood and Donald.

McGinley has too put too many man-hours in with the above three in Ryder Cups not to pick them imo.

baboo800

I am changing to Gallagher, Poulter and Luiten.

LinksLad

vienne86 wrote: »

Roll on Tuesday! We can then stop reading some silly speculative posts!

That's pure speculation!

ionadnapokot

Poulter, Donald and it surely now has to be Gallacher (Pros: Scottish. lives 35 miles away from Gleneagles. lost in playoff there at the Johnnie Walker Championship in August last year. Recent form. Cons: Rookie)
Donald and Garcia will be paired up again for the foursomes. Poulter likewise, he looks like a strong contender to partner Rose again. I cant see McGinley putting all the spotlight on McIlroy and McDowell in the opening foursomes, when he can go with two other tried and tested pairs in Rose / Poulter and Garcia / Donald.

Friday. Foursomes: Rose / Poulter, McIlroy / Donaldson, Garcia / Donald, McDowell / Dubuisson.
Four-ball: Gallacher – Kaymer, McIlroy – Poulter, Stenson – Bjorn, Garcia – Donald.

Saturday: Foursomes -Rose / Poulter, McIlroy / McDowell, Kaymer / Stenson, Garcia / Donald.
Four-ball: Gallacher - Donaldson, Bjorn – Stenson, McIlroy – Dubuisson, McDowell – Rose.

This would leave only McIlroy having played 4 matches. Stenson, McDowell, Garcia, Donald and Poulter having played 3. And everybody else having played twice. Can’t see the other wild card options: Gallacher, Westwood, Molinari, Luiten etc appearing in the Foursomes. Assuming McGinley will go with having played everybody at least twice prior to the singles, again I can’t see “an ideal player” from the wild card options for the Four-ball’s pairings. Molinari, and of course Westwood have previous experience over Gallacher in RC four-ball’s, but I reckon McGinley will go with the form player and local favourite.

ionadnapokot

More Pro's for a Gallacher wild card:
In his 14 career starts at the Johnnie Walker Championship Gallacher has made the cut 11 times & recorded seven top-10's. In his last three visits he has finished tied 6th in 2011 and 2012 and tied second in 2013.

Since 2010 Gallacher has been in the top-6 in driving distance on the PGA Centenary Course. He has averaged below 28 putts per round twice in his last four Gleneagles starts including a best of 27.5 putts needed per round in 2012.

http://www.golfcentraldaily.com/2014/09/what-made-up-mcginleys-mind-stephen.html

Speak Now

Gallacher and Poulter are surely certs.

No strong candidate for the 3rd spot really, would like to see either Luiten or Molinari get it but I guess McGinley will pick between Donald and Westwood.

Its a pity The Mechanic's form tailed off after winning the Spanish open, he ended up 13th on both list even after the loss of form. Would have loved to see him get the nod. If Donald gets picked Miguel would be the highest ranked European not playing!

Rikand

Somebody email those stats to McGinley. QUICK!

vienne86

Not long to wait now, but dammit, I might be out at 1230.....that's 1330 here. I'll still go with Gallacher, Donald and Poulter.

vienne86

Greg Allen on RTE thinks Westwood will get the nod over Donald - presence in the team room, versus Donald being in the proess of changing his swing.....dunno about that. I think Donald is playing better than Westwood.

Rikand

vienne86 wrote: »

presence in the team room

everyone looking at him wondering will he be left with a 3 foot putt to win the ryder cup....

vienne86

Rikand wrote: »

everyone looking at him wondering will he be left with a 3 foot putt to win the ryder cup....

My sentiments entirely. I wouldn't have him near the team this time round.

ionadnapokot

Just when I thought I was 100% sure it was going to be Poulter, Doanld and Gallacher, I started to look at the putting stats.

Westwood:
Putting from Inside 5' 2014: 94.16% 178th 2012: 95.60% 146th
Putting from 5-10' 2014: 58.82% 39th 2012: 47.13% 190th
Putting from - 10-15' 2014: 35.78% 10th 2012: 35.07% 20th

Donald:
Putting from Inside 5' 2014: 97.90% 5th 2012: 97.87% 7th
Putting from 5-10' 2014: 63.31% 2nd 2012: 62.90% 5th
Putting from - 10-15' 2014: 29.63% 104th 2012: 38.26% 2nd

Poulter:
Putting from Inside 5' 2014: 96.13% 119th 2012: 98.34% 4th
Putting from 5-10' 2014: 60.69% 15th 2012: 56.33% 86th
Putting from - 10-15' 2014: 25.53% 159th 2012: 23.58% 183rd

From the above, in fairness to Westwood, he has actually dramatically improved his putting from 5-10 ft this year. And Donald has had an equally dramatic slump this year from 10-15 feet. Poulter putting stats make for interesting reading also. Just like Westwood he has improved from 5-10 feet. But from inside 5 feet he is considerably worse than in 2012. He is of course still much better than Westwood at those putts.

With Westwood now the best putter of the three this year from 10-15 ft! If Westwood gets the pick Its his improved putting, strong showing in the Masters and PGA Championship and of course his RC experience that will sway it.

I still think it will be Poulter, Doanld and Gallacher. But only if McGinley is planning to go with both Donald (Garcia / Donald), and Poulter (Rose / Poulter) in foresome’s. If not, Westwood will prob get the nod over Donald.

ionadnapokot

just checked the odds there. it looks like Westwood is going to be picked ahead of Donald.

stooge

westwood Gallagher and Poulter. with Donald missing out due to form and swing change. Poulter in there for the fear factor, Gallagher for the scots factor and Westwood for the...... fat factor

vienne86

stooge wrote: »

westwood Gallagher and Poulter. with Donald missing out due to form and swing change. Poulter in there for the fear factor, Gallagher for the scots factor and Westwood for the...... fat factor

Groan....I hope you're wrong!

vienne86

Westwood, Poulter, Gallacher - Westwood!!!!! Bollocks. .....I like the guy, but would have preferred Donald.

ionadnapokot

Westwood to hole an 8 footer to retain the Ryder cup for a 1/2 pt...after missing a 4 footer on the previous hole to win it!

Rikand

was gonna tune into sky sports but work got busy.

Not happy with westwood over donald but I guess it was pretty obvious westy was getting the pick when he didnt go to Italy to try and get some form.

Oh well, at least he's picked Gallagher and Poults.

Probably fels garcia and mcilroy could be the pairing of choice rather than Garcia and Donald

syngindub

Have US names their 3?

SuprSi

syngindub wrote: »

Have US names their 3?

Midnight tonight

Tiger Mcilroy

Bottled the decision between westwood and Donald..

westwood woefully out of form and 40 plus places behind donald in the fedex...possibly gave him the nod as it could be westwoods last ryder cup.

ionadnapokot

Bradley, Mahan and Webb Simpson for his fourball pairing with Bubba

SaveOurLyric

McGinley showing his weakness from his first real decision - I wouldnt even blame Westwood if he plays tripe and Europe loses. Hopefully the other ten can get us over the line. Westie to sit it out until the Sunday maybe ? Hopefully it isnt a sign of Faldo-esque captaincy to come.

pistol_75

Tiger Mcilroy wrote: »

Bottled the decision between westwood and Donald..

westwood woefully out of form and 40 plus places behind donald in the fedex...possibly gave him the nod as it could be westwoods last ryder cup.

Donald hasn't been inside the Top 35 in his last 8 tournaments. Westwood's form while not up to his usual standard has been ok, especially in some of the bigger tournaments. Remember he shot 63 on the final day of thw WGC and was well up there in the USPGA.

That's hardly woefully out of form.