Hanson win dents Casey’s Ryder hopes
AT LEAST one of Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Justin Rose will miss out on the Ryder Cup after Sweden’s Peter Hanson took a giant step towards booking his place yesterday.
Hanson’s triumph at the Czech Open propelled him from 15th to eighth on Europe’s Ryder Cup ranking list, pushing Casey out of the all-important top nine. Now he and fellow stars Harrington, Donald and Rose face a nervous wait to see whether captain Colin Montgomerie selects them as one of his three wildcard picks for the biennial contest against the United States.
Montgomerie will announce his team for the October duel at Celtic Manor after the conclusion of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Sunday.
Controversially, Casey, Harrington, Donald and Rose have all elected to skip the final ranking event in Scotland in favour of staying in America for the lucrative Fed-Ex Cup play-off series. That means they are all relying on a captain’s pick, as is Italian Edoardo Molinari.
Hanson, who triumphed in Celadna after a play-off, and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who sits ninth in the rankings, could yet be edged out of the automatic qualifying spots depending on results at Gleneagles.
England’s Simon Dyson and Spain’s Alvaro Quiros both head to Perthshire knowing they must win to make Montgomerie’s team, while a top-two finish will suffice for Dyson’s countryman Ross McGowan.
FINAL EUROPEAN STANDINGS
WORLD LIST
1 Lee Westwood (Eng) 422.0
2 Rory McIlroy (NI) 316.9
3 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 285.4
4 Graeme McDowell (NI) 249.3
NEXT 5 ON EURO LIST
5 Ian Poulter (Eng) 2,238,874
6 Ross Fisher (Eng) 1,708,614
7 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 1,612,747
8 Peter Hanson (Swe) 1,580,707
9 M-A Jimenez (Spa) 1,554,775