Eamonn Sweeney-you cannot be serious?

thelongfellow

Article from Eamo in todays Indo about Monty's cup selections-possibly the dumbest article I've seen yet considering Edoardo is 15th not 35th...

The media had a lot of fun setting the Edoardo Molinari bandwagon rolling. Touting him as a potential wild card pick meant the final European Tour event of the year could be portrayed as an event charged with drama, rather than one which had little relevance to the eventual composition of the Ryder Cup team.

The fun got slightly out of hand when Molinari won the Johnnie Walker Championship, his victory-clinching birdie-birdie-birdie finish placing immense pressure on European captain Colin Montgomerie to succumb to sentiment. The Scotsman duly obliged.

And in doing so he both dealt a blow to Europe's chances of regaining the trophy and provided the United States with a major morale boost. Because it defies logic that the player excluded to make room for young Molinari, ranked number 35 in the world, is world number eight Paul Casey who should have been the first name on the wild card list.

Montgomerie was always going to have a tough choice to make, excluding one of Casey, Luke Donald, Pádraig Harrington and Justin Rose from his three wild card picks. That he has left two of them out beggars belief.

Molinari's Hollywood ending was impressive yet the fact remains that he had the opportunity to qualify by being among the top five European players on the home tour, excluding those qualifying through the world rankings. In this, he failed to surpass the underwhelming duo of Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson who will both be among his team-mates at Celtic Manor.

With six rookies on the side, the team looks much weaker than anyone would have imagined a few months ago. The wild card picks are there to help a manager rectify any glaring omissions from the team brought about by the vagaries of the selection process, not to reward loyalty to the European Tour at a time when most of our best players concentrate on the American equivalent.

The omission of Casey and Rose has sent their country's sports journalists into a frenzy. Having pushed the claims of Molinari as sentimental favourite, they have trained their sights on Pádraig Harrington instead.

Yet the Irishman's poor recent form notwithstanding, it would surely be unthinkable to omit a player who in the past four years has won three Majors when the likes of Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter have still to win one.

Perhaps it would have been better had Montgomerie relied solely on the world rankings to select his team, in which case Europe would be doing battle with Casey, Rose and Henrik Stenson in the side rather than Hanson, Jimenez and Molinari Senior, all three of whom are also ranked behind Robert Karlsson.

It would certainly be a better team than the one we've been landed with. That's the thing with bandwagons, it's all fun and games till they run out of control.

abouttobebanned

I agree with some and disagree with others. One thing's for sure though...the betting is all wrong for this - USA should be favourites.

BackScrub

It's a poor article alright but there is some merit in questioning the make up of the team. It's great to have 3 Irish lads in again but in all honesty I'd have found a way to leave Harrington out (it's hard to say that). I'd have chosen Karlsson however, although I'd have liked to have had Casey in there.

It was a tough choice for Monty however, the fact that there were so many good players depending on a pick made it impossible to please everyone. He's having a laugh making a case for Henrik Stenson however.

I can only see the US having an easy win. They're incredibly strong already with 4 picks to come.

WHIP IT!

I can only assume this chap does not watch golf?? Stenson?? Agree entirely with OP, it's a terrible piece... Molinari is in amazing form, I think he's a great pick.

soundsham

crap piece,read it earlier......

dvemail

This guy is hilarious, saying Molinari had his chance to qualify outright but didnt as he finished behind the "underwhelming" Miguel Angel Jimenez who by the way is on track to win for the 3rd time this year in 3 very stong tournaments.
Did he realise Molinaris Ryder Cup points only counted this year as he was in the challenge tour last year. Shows how well he did this year that he nearly managed to qualify!

G1032

Stopped reading the article after he said Edoardo was ranked 35th in the world......
If a journalist can't even get a basic fact like that correct he doesn't deserve to have his article read.

Aidric

dvemail wrote: »

Did he realise Molinaris Ryder Cup points only counted this year as he was in the challenge tour last year. Shows how well he did this year that he nearly managed to qualify!

Indeed. A poorly researched piece of garbage. Sindo is it? :rolleyes:

BUACHAILL

would love to see that planks face today when someone told him Molinari was 15th in rankings, twat ha ha

MisterAnarchy

He used to write for the Irish Examiner ?
I never liked his articles ,struck me as a very opinionated and bitter man.

f22

What a clown, hope he's watching sky sports 4 at the moment

Miley Byrne

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

He used to write for the Irish Examiner ?
I never liked his articles ,struck me as a very opinionated and bitter man.

Ya he used to write for the Examiner alrite. He certainly spews a lot of ****e, can't stand him to be honest.

DULLAHAN2

Is he actually saying that it was the media pressure on monty to pick molinari. What a fool!!!

Trampas

Only for Gmac and kaymer i would give him player of the year

dvemail

Trampas wrote: »

Only for Gmac and kaymer i would give him player of the year

Agreed he has definetly played some of the best stuff this year.

thelongfellow

dvemail wrote: »

Agreed he has definetly played some of the best stuff this year.

After his second today place today he will be close enough to OWGR top 10-definitely most improved European golfer this year.

Will be interesting to see who gets European player of the year. Based soley on the European tour results he should get it IMO.