McGinley explains reasons behind wild cards
Monday, 30 August 2010 12:29
Ryder Cup vice captain Paul McGinley has revealed just how tough it was for team captain Colin Montgomerie to make his wild card picks for the event.
Montgomerie announced on Sunday that Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari would be his picks, leaving out the likes of Paul Casey and Justin Rose.
'It was obviously a very difficult decision to make when you've so many World class players all having very good, strong years, looking for a pick and you've only got three picks,' McGinley said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
'Some top players are going to have to be left out. They haven't qualified for the team and that's why we're in that predicament.
'Padraig (Harrington) was obviously looking for a pick, he was very close to qualifying but his pedigree is so good. I've been fortunate enough to play Ryder Cup matches with him and so has Monty and we both felt that he warranted a pick.
Asked whether Casey and Rose's decision to miss the season's last European Tour event in favour of playing in The Barclays in the US, played a role McGinley said: 'We weren't making any political statements here. Our brief was to pick a team that we felt is going to be capable of winning the Ryder Cup for Europe.
'The great thing that we have in our 12 players is that there is such strength in depth in the one to twelve. We don't have to rely on three or four players as we have done in the past.
'There's going to be a situation there where we'll rest some of out top players during the week because we're so strong from one to twelve. We won't have to rely on Padraig so much.'
