AP...Paul McGinley, Des Smyth and Sam Torrance have gathered at the Grand Ball Room at European Tour headquarters and will announce their decision minutes from now.
They should be Stephen Gallagher, Ian Poulter for sure, and in my opinion Luke Donald...Molinari, Westwood will miss out and I'd have loved to see him pick Langer but that just won't happen...
Gallagher's slew of top-10 finishes this year and his play and deportment over the weekend have helped the 39-year-old Scotsman lock down a wild-card selection for a Ryder Cup debut in his home country
The three chosen will join a team already packed with talent, including four of the top five in the world Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia.
Westwood, Donald and Poulter have made up the backbone of Europe’s dominance of the event since 2002 but have struggled for form this year.
Gallagher came up just short in his attempt to snatch the final automatic qualifying place from Graeme McDowell, finishing third in the Italian Open on Sunday when a top-two spot would have seen him make the team and McGinley was in Turin to see him finish 65-69-65 and was impressed.
“His performance this week will very strongly be in his favor when it comes to making the picks,” McGinley said Sunday. “This has been the toughest ever Ryder Cup team to make from a European point of view, in terms of points you need to amass to make the team, so he has been up against it,” McKinley added. “And for a rank and file guy from the European Tour, who doesn’t play in America and misses out on a lot of the ranking points as a result, to perform as well as he does is all credit to him.”
As if those words weren't enough Gallagher also showed his liking for Gleneagles by making a three-man playoff in a European Tour event at the course last year.
Poulter will be difficult to leave out considering he usually saves his best performances for the Ryder Cup. He has 12 wins from 15 matches, and is on a seven-match winning streak, the last four coming at the “Miracle in Medinah” in 2012 when Europe came from 10-6 down on the final day to retain the cup.
Despite a lack of form this year, can McGinley overlook Luke Donald’s brilliant short game and putting, as well as a record of 10 wins from 15 Ryder Cup matches? Donald has played in four cups, 2004, `06, `10 and ’12 and Europe has won them all.
“My selections won’t be a surprise,” McGinley said at the Italian Open. “It won’t be coming out of left field. I will be going by logic.”
Europe has won five of the last six Ryder Cups, and seven of the last nine stretching back to 1995.
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