Flash: Olazabal Names Clarke To Vice Cart-Driving Role After Assurances He Will Not Repeat Past Buggy Crashing Antics

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Alistair Tait says the naming of Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley as three of four vice captains for September's Ryder Cup at Medinah will be rounded out by Miguel Angel Jimenez, assuming the Spaniard does not make it on points and the team hotel has smoking rooms.

Clarke has a bit of history behind the wheel, getting out of a speeding ticket by flashing the Claret Jug and more of a concern for potential European players, rolling a buggy at his home and sustaining minor injuries.

"You know Darren, I'll just catch a ride from Oly or Miguel or Thomas or Paul, if you don't mind," could be a popular refrain at Medinah.

American captain Davis Love recently rounded out his foursome of Senior Ego Masseurs, adding Scott Verplank and Jeff Sluman to the previously announced Mike Hulbert and Fred Couples.

Ryder Cup Captains Continue To Disappoint After Another Honest, Earnest Press Conference

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Sigh...Jeff Rude on another stellar press conference performance by Davis Love and Jose Maria Olazabal, the 2012 Captains, doing nothing to kindle the buffoonery of their predecessors.

How am I, as a blogger, to work with this kind of no-nonsense talk, starting with Davis Love:

As for Mahan, he is a two-time winner this year and has played on the last five U.S. international cup teams – two Ryder, three Presidents. One person close to Love said Mahan would be on the team if he doesn’t qualify on points.

For his part, Love on Tuesday was incredulous that someone who has two 2012 victories would be outside the automatic-qualifier line.

“How can that even happen?” Love said. “You’d think he’d be in.”

Meanwhile, Olazabal provided this tip on where he's leaning with one of his picks, not that I would agree based on Colsaerts' play this year.

European captain Jose Maria Olazabal will make his two picks Aug. 27, a day after the automatic 10 qualifiers are decided at the Johnnie Walker Championship. If the standings remained the same, his most likely choice would seem to be Ian Poulter. The Englishman is 12th on the European Team World Points list, right behind Nicolas Colsaerts.

Poulter has a 9-2 record in three Ryder Cups. He went 4-1 in 2008 and 3-1 last time.

European Ryder Cup Team Shaping Up Nicely

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I had not looked at the standings in a while but GolfChannel.com's Will Gray took the two points lists and merged them into the current European Ryder Cup team's likely ten with a couple of nominations for possible Captain's picks. 

Nice group of names, though Sergio better play well the next few weeks because he's being pursued by up-and-comers Colsaerts and Cabrera-Bello.

The U.S. Would Like To Play The Ryder Cup This Week

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In recent years, a look at the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings a few months from the event could be eye-opening, even depressing, but as Jason Sobel notes, not this year.

Just look at the options after the first eight of Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Zach Johnson, Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler.

Sobel writes:

The next eight on the current points list – Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Bill Haas, Brandt Snedeker, Ben Curtis, Johnson Wagner, Kyle Stanley and Mark Wilson – have each won a Tour event already in the year’s first five months, giving the captain plenty of ammo for his four wild-card selections.

All of which leads to one prevailing notion: The team will never be hotter than it is right now.

Granted, that only increases the U.S. chances by mere percentage points. As we’ve often witnessed over the years, the hotter team on paper hardly owns much of an advantage once the first balls are in the air at this biennial grindfest, but even the smallest advantage is still an advantage.