Casey & Poulter: fighting for one place?

Of all the Ryder Cup captains in the last 10 years, Nick Faldo probably has the hardest decision to make.

Mark Roe
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Nick Faldo has to select his Ryder Cup wildcards on Sunday evening and right now I see only three possible contenders.

Those are Darren Clarke, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey - and the way I see it I would pretty much select them in that order.

Before Clarke's win in Holland last weekend I had Poulter and Casey ahead of him in the race, but things have changed dramatically after the KLM Open.

You've got to look at Clarke's performance the last time he went to the Ryder Cup; he won three out of three points and he forged an astonishing relationship with Lee Westwood, who won four of five points at the K Club.

They are a formidable force and with Clarke on song and Westwood in the form of his life, I can't see any way that Darren isn't going to get a pick.

So Nick is pretty much left choosing one from two because as it stands, there are four rookies in the team and I don't see him picking another under those circumstances.

That means Martin Kaymer could miss out after winning two major events and missing another two big events - the French Open and the European Open - because of the death of his mother.

Without that interruption I believe he would have flown into this Ryder Cup team and I'm sure he will do in the future.

But I feel very sorry for him because I don't think he'll get a pick with another four rookies in the equation. Of course, he could still play his way into the side by doing well at Gleneagles and I certainly wouldn't rule out that possibility.

Decision

Of all the Ryder Cup captains in the last 10 years, Nick Faldo probably has the hardest decision to make because I don't know how you decide between Poulter and Casey.

Poulter has clearly improved since last year in terms of his world ranking and he picked up a big win in Japan.

Furthermore, he was stood on the last green at the Open Championship and in his mind he had a putt to win the tournament.

Nobody knew how supremely Padraig Harrington would finish, so Poulter was effectively facing the ultimate test and he came through it. That's exactly the type of player you want under pressure at the Ryder Cup.

He's a proven winner and if you needed somebody to hole a putt on the last green to win the Ryder Cup then he would be a very, very strong candidate.

Then you've got Casey, who by some strange anomaly of scheduling managed to miss the European Open, the French Open, the BMW International and Loch Lomond - four of the biggest prize funds in European golf.

I can't figure out why he didn't change his schedule, but he's still close enough and he's been playing much better recently, picking up four top 10s in the last five weeks.

He is also in running into form, he is also a guy with Ryder Cup experience and he is also a formidable opponent both in four-ball and in singles.

That's why Nick has one of the hardest decisions a Ryder Cup captain has ever had to make.

Poulter decided to pull out of the Johnnie Walker Championship to play in the FedEx Cup, even though he still had an outside chance of qualifying by right.

If I was in his position I would have come back from America to play at Gleneagles because I think a top-three finish would have been good enough to get into the team.

But I hope that won't influence Nick's choice because Casey isn't here either. They are both playing in Boston so he can't use that as a reason for picking one over the other.

Surprise

I've not mentioned Colin Montgomerie yet and we mustn't forget that he is capable of doing anything, even surprising us all by winning at Gleneagles this week.

He is a supremely talented golfer, but if he could do what Clarke did last week, then I'd be astonished after the form he's shown this year.

His putting hasn't been good enough and of the money he's won this year, more than half came from one cheque when he came second at the French Open. That's a golf course he loves and plays well on most of the time.

If you take that one tournament away then he'd be around 80th on the Order of Merit and I just don't think he's shown the right level of consistency to earn a pick.

I can't imagine that Monty is in Nick's thoughts right now, but if he was to win this weekend then he'd obviously smash his way into contention.

If that happened there would be huge public pressure to pick the legendary Colin Montgomerie, a man who embodies the Ryder Cup and is almost superhuman in that event.

But as it stands I'd pick Clarke - and I wouldn't want to be in Nick's shoes having to decide between Poulter and Casey.

For me, it would almost be the toss of a coin.