Wild Card Watch / Ralph Ellis / 26 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

Ian Poulter will have received reassurances from Nick Faldo over his Ryder Cup place before deciding to miss Gleneagles, says Ralph Ellis.

Ryder Cup captains traditionally worry about their wild cards. Picking their two personal choices is the only bit of real management they have to do. Ian Woosnam famously made a muck up of letting Carl Pettersson know he'd been left out two years ago. There have been plenty of others down the years left grumbling at the news they weren't going to make the team.

This year it's probably the biggest, toughest decision ever. And it hasn't been made any easier for Nick Faldo by both Ian Poulter and Paul Casey deciding not to play at Gleneagles this week. Both are now hoping for the call from Faldo that says they are in the team. One or the other could well be disappointed.

Poulter seems to be the biggest gambler, choosing to protect his place on the US PGA tour rather than go to Scotland in search of the prize money which would have guaranteed him a spot at Valhalla. He's going to Boston instead to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship as it is his last chance to play the required 15 events on the American tour. His odds to be in the European team have shot out from [1.1] to [1.7] on the news, which is actually good news if you want to back him to be there.

Missing Gleneagles is a brave call, but he's not taken it without talking to Faldo first. What was said? Only they know, but I've got a feeling that Poulter was given some reassurance about his place on the team before going public with the decision not to go to Scotland.

Faldo is clearly trying to keep some room open for the flamboyant English star who came so close to winning The Open. He's already backed himself into a corner over Casey when he was working for TV on The Barclays Open at the weekend. This morning's Times carries a great series of pictures of Casey holing a 22 foot putt on the 18th green. As he lined it up, Faldo in the commentary box quipped: 'If he makes this, he's in the Ryder Cup team.' When the ball duly dropped neatly into the middle of the cup, he frantically back tracked saying: 'OK, I can't quite make my mind up yet.'

Casey has been told about the incident and returned with his own joke. "We've got that on tape and my lawyers will have a field day." But it's serious stuff and he might well need to speak to his learned friends. According to the Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson, who is close enough to Faldo to reveal his plans to partner Padraig Harrington with a rookie, the two picks will go to Darren Clarke and Poulter. He writes today: "In Poulter you have got someone who stood over a 15ft putt on the final hole of the Open, thinking he had a chance of winning if he holed it, and did so. Isn't that exactly what you're looking for in a Ryder Cup player? It is, and it's why backing Poulter to be on the tee at Valhalla isn't as much of a gamble as Faldo - and Poulter himself - are making it out to be.

Five things you might not know about Ryder Cup wild cards

1. While Europe gave the captain a choice in his team from the start of the new format competition, America only introduced a "captain's pick" in 1989

2. Nick Faldo was himself a wild card in 1995, and his singles win over America's captain's pick Curtis Strange was the pivotal result in Europe's win

3. Bernhard Langer at the Belfry in 1989 was the worst performing wildcard ever, losing all three of his matches

4. Andrew Coltart was a surprise choice for Mark James at Brookline in 1999 - and was then left out of all the pairings and drew Tiger Woods in the singles to lose 3 & 2

5. Overall America's choices have fared slightly better - winning 50.9% of the available points while Europe's have picked up 47.8%

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