Monty leaves out Rose and Casey for Ryder Cup

Stature, versatility and raw form were the hallmarks on which Colin Montgomerie repectively selected Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari as his captain's picks for the European Ryder Cup team to face the US holders at The Celtic Manor from October 1-3.

Many expected Monty to include world No.9 Paul Casey and double US Tour winner Justin Rose among his wild cards but when the Italian Molinari birdied the closing three holes to win the Johnnie Walker title at Gleneagles it threw a spanner into the works.

Nominating three-time major champion Harrington and the World No.10 Donald, he said: "I feel very sorry for Casey and Rose but my hands were tied in many ways and I had no option to leave out world class players.

"But who could leave out a player of Harrington's stature? No US  player wants to play against Padraig. And who could leave out a player like Luke, who is so versatile and can play in foursomes and fourball?" said Monty.

"And how could I leave out Edoardo after the way he finished today?"

There was nothing personal in his choices, he said just cold facts.

"I have looked at the statistics and the players in 7th, 8th and 9th position who have qualified automatically in the past have been responsible for 40 per-cent of the points scored in Ryder Cups. Captains' picks have been responsible for 70 per-cent of the points."

Donald immediately responded to his selection by racing up the 4th round leaderboard in the Barclays Championship on the PGA Tour. He shot 28 over the first nine including birdies at his first six holes to challenge the leaders, who included Scot Martin Laird and American Dustin Johnson.

Another key to Molinari's selection was the fact that his brother Francesco is already on the European team and together they won the World Cup for Italy earlier in the year.

The rest of the European team is Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Ross Fisher, Ian Poulter, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson.

Added Monty: "I will hope to get the players together, let them know what I expect and so they are comfortable with what I am trying to do, in terms of pairings. To call some of them rookies is unfair, they are world class athletes.

"I'm very confident that with this team we can win back the Cup. After all we only need half a point more than the Americans."

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