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The US Ryder Cup team to face Europe in this years competition at the K Club in Ireland in now complete. Following on from the completion of the automatic qualification phase yesterday where the top ten players who qualify by merit were finalised (see those results here) Tom Lehman has announced Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink has his two wildcard captain’s picks.
Tom Lehman’s choices were interesting in that they seemed to answer recent mutterings about the lack of Ryder Cup experience in the team the US would be sending over to try and retrieve the trophy. Both Cink (33) and Verplank (42) have played in previous Ryder Cups with Cink playing in 2004 and 2002 and Verplank at the Belfry in 2002.
Lehman’s choice was no doubt a difficult one and he notified each of the players who finished in positions 11 to 25 individually. Cink narrowly missed out on automatic qualification by finishing 12th overall whilst Verplank was a bit further down the field at position 20.
The completion of the BMW International in Munich on (31 Aug – 03 Sept) will deliver the final results for the European Ryder Cup team and Ian Woosnam (European Ryder Cup Captain) will be announcing his two wildcard picks shortly after. Rumours are flying however that Darren Clarke has already been offered one of these so there may even be only one left.
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[…] The Ryder Cup is firmly within view now. The US Ryder Cup team is finalised (and the US Captain’s picks announced) and as we enter the last week of the European qualifying competitions the team is beginning to become clear. This week see Olazabal re-entering the World Cup Points list putting the pressure back on McGinley who’s hanging on to the last place in the European Points list now that Montgomerie is also qualifying as top of the European Points list (See this article for how this works). […]
[…] The teams are almost finalised. The US team is set and there are just four European places (2 automatic and 2 wildcard positions) to be confirmed. McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal look set to take the 9th and 10th places in the team. […]