NEWPORT, WALES | Good news and
bad news for Colin Montgomerie, the
Europe Ryder Cup captain, during the
Celtic Manor Wales Open. The good
news was that he narrowly avoided
slipping up in a wide-ranging press
conference on the eve of the tournament. He said that he expected every
one of Europe’s leading players, who
were not otherwise qualified for the
Ryder Cup, to compete at Gleneagles
in the Johnnie Walker Championship
at the end of August, the last qualifying
event for his team.
“I’ll be very surprised if I pick any
player on the border of the team whom
I ask to play at Gleneagles and they
don’t show up,” Montgomerie said. “I
expect there will be about eight can-
didates for my three wild cards and
it should be a given that they turn up
at the final event. I want to see them
showing support for European golf and
the European Tour.”
This put the Europe captain at odds
with Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia
and Paul Casey, all of whom have at
least one eye on the first tournament
in the FedEx Cup series in the US, The
Barclays, which is played at the same
time as the Gleneagles event. All three
are at this moment outside the top
nine in the points table. If they remain
outside on Sunday, 29th August, they
would need Montgomerie to use one of
his three picks to select them.
good putter, and Rhys has them all.”
A young Nick Faldo used to prac-
tise on the linoleum on the floor of a
room in his parents’ house. The uneven,
fast surface helped Faldo groove his
putting stroke. When he was growing
up, Davies practised for hours putting
into a slightly raised rubber hole that
was smaller than a conventional-sized
hole. It cost him 10 pence ( 15 cents) to
buy. “It was the best investment I have
ever made” Davies said.
Is Rhys Davies, the slim Welsh-
man who went to East Tennessee State
University before turning pro in 2007,
the best putter in the world? It would
have been fanciful to suggest as much
before this season. But after Davies fin-
ished runner-up to Graeme McDowell
in last week’s Wales Open, after coming
second to Donald in the Madrid Masters
the week before, as well as having had
a victory in the Trophee Hassan II event
in Morocco in March, Davies’ skill with
his putter has become a talking point
on the European Tour.
