Sport / Golf

RYDER CUP 2010: Tiger Woods in the team and Europe must beware of a twist in tale

www.dailymail.co.uk - When captains Hal Sutton, Tom Lehman or Curtis Strange ever spoke about Tiger Woods, they did so with such reverence it had to transmit itself back to the team room. More... (Golf)

RYDER CUP 2010: Rickie Fowler attracts the attention as Corey Pavin plays the youth card

www.dailymail.co.uk - There was little doubt that Pavin would confirm Tiger Woods’s participation, but thrusting in the blond Californian Rickie Fowler is a bold move by the US captain. More... (Golf)

Tiger Woods to play sixth Ryder Cup after captain hands him wild card

www.guardian.co.uk - Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Ricky Fowler selected Montgomerie delighted to see Woods on the planeTiger Woods will return to Wales for the first time in 15 years after he, along with the former major champions Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson as well as the 21-year-old Ricky Fowler, were today handed wild cards by the United States Ryder Cup captain, Corey Pavin, for the contest at Celtic Manor next month.Woods, who was famously beaten as an amateur in the 1995 Walker Cup match at Royal Porthcawl by the Englishman Gary Wolstenholme, will arrive in Wales this time a richer, more famous and, after his travails of the last 10 months on and off the course, humbler man. A veteran of five Ryder Cups, Woods failed to qualify for the US team as of right and needed his captain's favour to make the team of 12. There was never any doubt, even if Pavin attempted to suggest otherwise."I was hoping he would qualify on points. He didn't and then I just waited to see how he would play," the US captain said of Woods, who recently started working with a new swing coach, Sean Foley, and has seen some obvious improvement in his game.Time and again during the announcement at the New York stock exchange Pavin said that Woods was simply "one of 12" players on a team - an ethic of equality the world No1 was quick to endorse. "Whether I was a person who was picked or a person who earned their way on to the squad, it doesn't change the overall goal and that is to go over there to win," Woods said.That might be easier said than done against a European team judged to be the strongest for more than 20 years, as evidenced by Colin Montgomerie's decision to leave Paul Casey, the world No8, and Justin Rose, twice a winner on the US PGA Tour this year, out of his selections.By contrast Pavin's problem was not so much centred on which players he could leave out but on who might bring sufficient talent, presence and bravery to the US team - a dilemma he resolved, in part, by making the somewhat surprising choice of Fowler.There is no doubting the talent of the 21-year-old Californian but, given that he has yet to win on the Tour and has no experience of professional team golf, there is a clear risk involved in taking him. Needless to say, Pavin was unrepentant, even if he was more than a little short of logic when it came to defending his choice. "I just had a gut feeling about Ricky," he said.Montgomerie welcomed Woods's selection. "Like my European team, the American side has an excellent blend of youthful talent and I am delighted to see Tiger Woods amongst Corey's selections - the Ryder Cup is a better event with him in it," he said.Ryder CupTiger WoodsCorey PavinGolfLawrence Doneganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds More... (Golf)

Corey Pavin goes with his feelings and takes a punt on Ricky Fowler

www.guardian.co.uk - Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Tiger Woods make the team World No1's presence in Wales was never in doubtIf Tiger Woods was the most obvious of Corey Pavin's four captain's picks announced today for the United States team that will travel to Celtic Manor in three weeks' time, then Ricky Fowler, a 21-year-old with no Ryder Cup experience and no PGA Tour victories, was the most inexplicable.Even Pavin had a hard time today accounting for his choice, wandering around a rhetorical maze until he settled on a little nugget of karmic sensibility seldom heard in the game and one he might later regret committing to posterity: "It just came down to feelings."The problem with feelings is that they can sometimes let a man down in the context of a Ryder Cup. Pavin, who stands as one of the feistiest and most pragmatic of competitors in the recent history of the event, will surely know that better than anyone, which suggests either that he has abandoned the instincts that sustained him through a very successful career in golf or that he had no other option but to take an almighty gamble.The setting for today's announcement, the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest casino this side of Las Vegas, would lend credence to the latter explanation, and so would identity of the other two players chosen to make the trip to Wales. Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson have both won major championships (the former at Turnberry in 2009, the latter at Augusta two years before that) but neither steps on to the first tee carrying the aura of a major champion. They have scared no one through the years, as their losing records in the Ryder Cup suggest.Yet when Pavin and his vice-captains came to make their picks yesterday evening, both were rather obvious, and widely predicted, despite falling well short of making the team as of right. Johnson finished 11th in the qualification table, Cink 14th."There comes a point where I had to make a judgment call on who I think can handle the pressure over there," the US captain said, pointing out that both played on Ryder Cup teams in Europe, albeit it losing ones. There is a certain logic to that but, as one of Pavin's vice-captain's Tom Lehman later pointed out in the context of defending Fowler's selection, "experience is overrated" in the Ryder Cup. So which is it to be: experience matters or it does not? The answer, as always at the Ryder Cup, depends on the result. But that will not be known until 3 October, leaving observers to speculate about, and the leaders of the US team to dance around, the rather obvious fact that in the end Pavin's choice of wild-card picks was not much of a choice at all.Woods's presence in Wales was always guaranteed, and not just because the money men, and their US TV sidekicks, would have demanded it. The world No1 may be some distance from being the player he once was but he is beginning to strike the ball with ominous authority.But thereafter Pavin was confronted with a list of undistinguished candidates such as Lucas Glover, who has done very little since winning the US Open at Bethpage last year, and Charlie Hoffman, who received late consideration after his victory at the Deutsche Bank tournament in Boston yesterday. Anthony Kim has played twice since returning from a long-term injury, missing the cut twice - yet even he had his supporters.In such straitened circumstances, the question for the American captain was not "who to leave out?" as it was for Colin Montgomerie when he announced his team two weeks ago but who might add some experience and credibility to the US team and who would supply the youthful vigour to counter Europe's Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer? That the answer, or at least three-quarters of it, came in the shape of Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Ricky Fowler will have heartened no one as much as Montgomerie and his team.Ryder CupCorey PavinGolfLawrence Doneganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds More... (Golf)

Should Tiger Woods be in the US Ryder Cup team?

www.guardian.co.uk - Should the currently inconsistent world No1 - who has a scratchy Ryder Cup record - be facing Europe next month? More... (Golf)

Colin Montgomerie 'delighted' Tiger Woods made US Ryder Cup team

www.guardian.co.uk - Montgomerie says Ryder Cup is a 'better event' with Woods Cink, Johnson and Fowler also given US wild card spotsColin Montgomerie insists he is "delighted" Tiger Woods will be on the United States team defending the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales on 1-3 October. Woods was today given a wild card along with Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and the 21-year-old Rickie Fowler."Corey [Pavin] has used his four captain's picks to good effect as I knew he would," said Montgomerie, who nine days ago controversially left the world No9 Paul Casey out of his own team. "I am glad we now know the 12 men we will face at Celtic Manor. Like my European team, the American side has an excellent blend of youthful talent and I am delighted to see Tiger Woods amongst Corey's selections - the Ryder Cup is a better event with him in it."I wish the American team safe travels and we all look forward to welcoming them to Wales."There are those who believe Woods has been a hindrance rather than a help to the American cause since he made his debut in Spain in 1997. In five appearances he has been on the winning side just once and, when he missed the last clash in Louisville following knee surgery, the Americans ended a run of three successive defeats with victory by a five-point margin.Woods has lost 13 of his 25 games, but has won all his singles since losing to Costantino Rocca at Valderrama - and last October scored five points out of five at the Presidents Cup.Ryder CupGolfColin Montgomerieguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds More... (Golf)

RYDER CUP 2010: Tiger Woods handed wildcard for Celtic Manor

www.dailymail.co.uk - Tiger Woods has been named in the United States team to take on Europe for the Ryder Cup next month. American skipper Corey Pavin completed his 12-man line-up for Celtic Manor by revealing his four wildcards. More... (Golf)

Video: Tiger Woods included in US Ryder Cup team

www.guardian.co.uk - Captain Corey Pavin names Tiger Woods as wildcard in US Ryder Cup team More... (Golf)

Tiger Woods named in US Ryder Cup team by captain Corey Pavin

www.guardian.co.uk - World No1 Woods handed wild card entry In pictures: The 12 US Ryder Cup playersTiger Woods has been included in the US team for next month's Ryder Cup after being handed a wild card selection.The US captain, Corey Pavin, named the world No1 in his 12-man line-up for October's event at Celtic Manor, with Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler as his three other wild card picks.Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Jeff Overton, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar had already automatically sealed their places in the team.Woods has endured a year of torment since the public revelations over his private life but the 14-times major winner has finished 12th and 11th in his last two events, a marked improvement on what came before.America defend the trophy in Wales on 1-3 October and for Woods it will be a sixth cap. He made his debut at Valderrama in 1997 and also played at The Belfry in 2002 and the K Club four years ago.Johnson, Masters champion in 2007, finished third in the US PGA last month and returns to the side after making his debut at The K Club.Cink receives a pick for the third time in four matches, but has not won a tournament since beating 59-year-old Tom Watson in the play-off for The Open last summer and has had only one top-10 finish in the last six months.Fowler, at 21 the same age as Rory McIlroy, creates history by making it from the Walker Cup to the Ryder Cup in just one year. He has not lifted a US Tour title yet, but has had three second places and is already up to 33rd in the world.Pavin said: "These great 12 players are going to compete with much intensity and emotion. And more importantly, I know the passion will be with our players, the fans and of course, our great country."US teamPhil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton, Matt Kuchar Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Rickie FowlerEurope teamLuke Donald (GB), Ross Fisher (GB), Peter Hanson (Sweden), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Martin Kaymer (Germany), Graeme McDowell (GB), Rory McIlroy (GB), Edoardo Molinari (Italy), Francesco Molinari (Italy), Ian Poulter (GB), Lee Westwood (GB)Tiger WoodsRyder CupGolfguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds More... (Golf)

The US Ryder Cup 2010 team | Gallery

www.guardian.co.uk - Our golf correspondent, Lawrence Donegan, gives his opinion on the 12 players picked by the US captain, Corey Pavin, to take on Europe at Celtic Manor next monthLawrence Donegan More... (Golf)