So first, to the picks of Furyk and Björn and the overall look of the squads. Out of the eight picks available, to both skippers, only two rookies have been selected for inclusion into the squads.
Furyk has gone for two powerhouses in Woods and Michelson and two rookies namely DeChambeau and Finau. These two rookies are doing very nicely indeed, if judging by the current FedEx Cup standings: DeChambeau is leading going into the Tour Championship and Finau is third. What’s impressive, scary and foreboding is that these are two of the three rookies representing the USA. So there is no real need to protect them as these two are the hottest players on the squad, as it stands today.
What’s actually really concerning is that Europe only have six of their team in the top thirty who are advancing to Atlanta where the US Team have six players in the top ten. Of their whole squad, of twelve, only one has missed the final stage of the Playoffs and that, surprisingly, is Jordan Spieth who missed out by one spot.
So, I guess, it’s not too big a jump to see why our European Captain has gone with the experienced and battle-hardened quartet of Casey, Poulter, Garcia and Stenson.
Especially when you consider that we have the unusual situation of five rookies in the squad, when four are such household names, namely Fleetwood, Rahm, Noren and Hatton.
The only European wildcard which has made it into the final thirty, at Eastlake, is Casey. To argue his form and experience are a powerful combination compared to anybody else is easily justified in this case. So, if on paper Casey is the strongest pick, then Sergio has to be the weakest being the first of the team to be eliminated after the first FedEx Playoff event by not making it into the top 100 players.
This is where I feel personally that it must be so hard for Björn; he has picked a Ryder Cup stalwart over a rookie in Matt Wallace, reasoning that Sergio brings more to a team room and a squad than just points for the team.
We can’t really complain though, his plans to regain form and be match fit for the matches has proved very fortuitous for anybody planning to make it to this year’s Portugal Masters. That’s right he is coming to the Algarve to get some warm weather training in ready for Paris the following week. He is also being joined in the field by Padraig Harrington winner two years ago, and Danny Willett the green jacket winner in 2017. It looks like moving the date forward into September has had some significant benefits for the Algarve’s premium professional event.
Which leads us onto the newly crowned World Number 1, the fourth English player to make it into the much coveted position behind Faldo, Westwood and Donald.
He is only the 22nd player to make it since the rankings started in 1986. It’s probably fair to point out that it comes from dogged consistency, great golf being played with a sublime swing, over a long period of time. He hasn’t won much in 2018, but he has certainly been in contention.
All this means that he hasn’t got a lot of space between him and second spot, to be fair third spot could overtake him in short order. Let’s not expect a long run from Rose in the Number one spot, whether it will be worth an extra couple of points to team Europe, having the number one player on their team, hard to say. What we do hope is that it makes whoever partners him feel a little more shielded, knowing that our hottest player can take care of business.
It’s not long to go now, as the slogan goes, “Believe in Blue”.