Monty Rounds Out Team With Harrington, Donald, Molinari

And Sergio added as fourth vice captain! The team in images.

Monty picks:

Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari.

The qualifiers:

Lee Westwood

Rory McIlroy

Martin Kaymer

Graeme McDowell

Ross Fisher

Francesco Molinari 

Peter Hanson

Miguel Angel Jiménez

Comments

[Chuck]

Hmm. No Paul Casey. One of the best match-players in the world.

[Scott]

No Paul Casey. What a pity :)

[Media driven]

Somebody good bound to get left behind must be some animus toward Casey for some reason. Like that they do picks right away no reason to drag it out as US/PGA does (or used to, after PGA the Monday AM after).

Europe should get 4 picks to equalize selection process.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

Harrington over Casey? Strewth!

Well done Edoardo though. Had Monty not picked him, I rather think he may not have left Gleneagles alive!(lol)

[d.b.cooper]

I'm counting 8 qualifiers on Geoff's list. Are we missing one?

[act38]

+ Ian Poulter qualified

[digsouth]

Harrington picked to provide alto for the Choir portion of the prematch ceremony, Rumored Michael Jackson song "I'll Be There" needed solo performer...PH is DA MAN!... Can't be his playing this year.

glad MoBro got in, Donald in on events of the day , IMO.

Sergio brought in as waterboy. Good Move? Hiis body language suggests no, thought maybe Monty is onto something.......could be a boost to have SG chearlead, and good for SG's game to be included.

If he starts whining though, he should have to remain in clubhouse as spike changer, and grip cleaner.

over/under on SG whining: pick em.


digsouth

[Tim in Hoylake]

I like not having Casey; he more or less went through the motions 2 years ago. Of course I like Donald even less; Justin Rose had a WAAAY better year, and played OK with Poulter last time out. Luke Donald 1.5 point out of 4 (I'm an optimist).

[digsouth]

d b


8 is the new 9.....or maybe 8 is 9 in metric.


I'll check.

Rose over Donald and Paddy, IMO.

no one called me to consult.

digsouth

[Chuck]

Maybe Casey can be Monty's date. He gets a uniform that way.

[d.b.cooper]

4 vice captains are not enough!

I think every player should have their own fully dedicated vice captain.

[5.0]

Luke Donald? The most over-rated Euro ever.

[digsouth]

good observaion d.b.

Pavin should reciprocate.:

TW would be a natural for a captain of vice.

ds

[Lip Out]

If you ask me, both Rose and Casey seem like they'd be more comfortable on the American side.

[Bule]

I would have picked Casey over Donald but im happy about Rose being out. He seems like a whimp to me dont like his style at all.
Paddy seems like a good call

[chico]

Was at Gleneagles this week and was mightily impressed by Molinari.
Whoever Monty picked he would have been crucified for it.Wouldnt have picked Padraig myself but which ever way you look at it we have a pretty strong team.
Never like it when we are favourites though.

[Buffett]

In his press conference Monty said he added Garcia as a Vice Captain because of his "passion". As Garcia stopped playing golf because he was so unhappy, this is is a curious choice. no?

[e. chan]

Ed. Molinari birdies the last 3 holes at the Johnnie Walker to win the tournament and grab a captain's pick. Bravo Mr. Molinari.

Harrington has not been in form from 2009-2010. As everyone knows he owns 3 majors. Harrington is still a good scrambler and putter. Perhaps Montgomerie was thinking of an all-Irish duo with McIlroy. (Read cracking the code by Azinger/Braund).

For me the last slot would've come down to Rose and Casey, Monty chose Donald.

Rose 2009: Masters T-20, US T-108, British T-13, PGA T-81
2010: Masters DNP, US 157, British 78, PGA 99
2010: W Memorial, AT&T
Last 3 starts prior to Barclays: British Open Cut, Firestone T-19, PGA Cut

Scoring avg: 69.81, driving distance: 287 yrds, GIR: 67.45, scrambling: 64.27, putts per round 28.73

Luke Donald 2009 Masters T-38, US T-61, British T-5, PGA T-43
2010 Masters 54, US 47, British 11, PGA 109
2010 Season W Madrid masters, 2nd Riviera, T3 Harbour Town, 3rd Canadian Open.
Last 3 starts prior to Barclays: 3rd Canadian, T-46 Firestone, PGA Cut

Scoring avg. 70.62, driving distance 276.4, GIR: 64.96%, scrambling 66.16%, putts per round 28.56.

Rose with his 2 wins, better stats and prior history with Poulter would seem to have been a better pick than Donald. However Rose missed cuts at the worst possible time in St. Andrews and the PGA. In 2008 people accused Faldo of favoritism in selecting Poulter who had so-so results that year. Poulter than lit it up at the Ryder Cup.

I would've selected Rose. Now to use a cop-out line, time will tell about the Donald pick.

[Buffett]

Graeme McDowell is likely to pair with McIlroy, not Harrington.

[e. chan]

The World Cup of Golf 2009. Thanks for the tip. In the coming weeks it will be interesting to talk about pairings.

[lloydcole]

I love Sergio as a vice captain.
He will have the opportunity to get under the skin of the entire US team, captain and vice captains. I predict a riot. A laugh or a giggle, anyway.

[Dutch]

I would've picked Paddy, Casey, and Rose.

[Longy]

With that many nationalities it reminds me of the English cricket team

[Marky Mark]

Over the last couple of years, the British press has developed a term to describe the career of an athlete that has failed to live up to the initial hype. It is called "Luke Donald Disease."

Check it out:

http://blogs.golf.com/golf-truth-rumors/2009/08/luke-donald-disease-irks-donald.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/europeantour/5901878/British-golfers-laid-low-by-Luke-Donald-disease-of-underachievement.html

[d.b.cooper]

Yep, Donald is overrated.

He is not a closer. You can just see it.

But I'm sure he is a nice guy, gets along well, popular with teammates, etc.

[FWIW]

I would have picked Casey, Rose and Molinari. The object is to win the thing, and this European team as chosen is not as good as if should be. The selection process cost them dearly, getting lugs like Hanson and Jimenez (cool guy, not much of a match-play threat) instead of Casey and Rose. A month ago this would have seemed preposterous, but the U.S. will actually have the better team in Wales and could pull this upset off. Looking forward to it. Monty will be near suicidal if things go south on the Euros as they appear to be heading.