It's all going to plan for Faldo as Europe hit odds-on

Ryder Cup Betting Zone / Paul Krishnamurty / 12 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

After another thrilling weekend of championship golf, Paul Krishnamurty reflects on the seismic developments of the last month.

First and foremost, I must salute Europe's new golfing legend, Padraig Harrington. Any half-decent player can win one Major, so to win a second is important to prove it was no fluke. To win three though, especially in the space of just 13 months, places Harrington in a very exclusive club.

Don't let anybody talk down Pod's achievement just because Tiger was injured. Even the great man would have struggled to live with Harrington at either Birkdale or Oakland Hills. Tiger always said that a Major doesn't start until the back-nine on Sunday, and Harrington's performance down the stretch in both Majors rank amongst the greatest ever. His par on last night's final hole, facing the prospect of a disastrous double-bogey, was the stuff champions are made of. Without doubt, Harrington has massively improved for the experiences, and hopefully there's more to come. When Tiger returns next year, Ireland's finest could yet turn out to be his greatest rival.

Beyond Harrington's personal glory, the last two Majors represent a wider breakthrough for European golf. Everybody rates the Open as our best chance so while filling the first three places at Birkdale was cause for celebration, the result at the weekend was probably bigger. Not only did Harrington become the first ever PGA champion from Europe, but he led our all-round strongest performance in the Major to date, with no less than five players making the top-10 compared to America's three.

No wonder then that Europe's price for next month's Ryder Cup hardened to [1.9], the shortest by far they've ever been away from home in that competition. I suspect captain Nick Faldo might have sported a grin as wide as Harrington's after seeing several selection headaches cured. A month ago, he faced being without at least two preferred players at Valhalla with Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose heading a big group outside the qualification spots.

All of those three now look secure, and with Luke Donald injured I reckon there are just five left fighting it out for Faldo's two wildcard picks. Unless they do something special over the next three weeks, he'll have to choose from Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer. My choices would be Casey and Clarke.

The American qualifying system ended yesterday, so we now know their eight automatic choices. Focus now centres on which four players get the wildcards from their captain Paul Azinger. Initially, those extra two picks appeared to be a big advantage, but looking through the potential list of candidates I doubt it will make much difference. There's certainly no obvious world-class beneficiary, though I suppose the vague hints from David Toms and Chris Dimarco of a return to form might help their cause.

The two players I'd like to back to win favour with Azinger are JB Holmes and Bubba Watson. My main reason stems simply from listening to Butch Harmon on Sky, who seems a well-placed source. Harmon said these two big-hitters were strongly rumoured to be on the shortlist, to which the rest of the commentary team seemed surprised. I reckon it makes sense though, because their huge-hitting, birdie-chasing game looks ideal for four-balls. Holmes and Watson would make ideal partners for short and straight players like Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard.

Whatever the final line-ups, besides the ever-unreliable Phil Mickelson, the US look a team shorn of stars. Azinger must be concerned that Kenny Perry has gone off the boil after a tremendous early summer, and in fact the only one of the their automatic eight selections who will be pleased with their work last week was Ben Curtis. Suddenly its become hard to argue a case for the US regaining the trophy, and what seemed like a very short European price looks like getting shorter.