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I agree with Mister Carter here. Maybe Monty wants to have the possibility to pick an old warrior that stands too far away in the rankings to be automatically selected...

I fully agree with your comments. Its Monty full of his own self importance - again. mark my words, Monty is going to make a real mess of it.

Can't see a problem with extra picks, it just gives more versatility. Having said that, there's still nothing to stop Monty picking the players who would have qualified under the 2 wildcard system. What it does mean is that he DOESN'T have to pick somebody who had an early 'hot streak' but then totally loses form in the weeks leading up to the Ryder Cup. I'm sure you can think of numerous examples. It should also mean less chance of a player being automatically selected and then not played until the final day's singles.

Completely agree Iain; not to mention that Montgomerie might be sorry he asked for this by the time he makes his decision.

Does Monty really need a third pick? Actually, he needs a fourth pick to have parity with Corey Pavin. Iain Carter asks 'Has a European skipper truly needed more than two picks?' He must have a very short memory. The last time at Valhalla was THE classic example of there not being enough picks and Darren Clarke, on form and a recent winner, had to miss out.
Actually, Monty is quite right (and only half joking) when he said he would like to have all 12 picks! The points system has always been a flawed (and unsuccessful) political device to try to persuade players of not quite the top rank to play in Europe, which is why it is 4 from the world list and still 5 from the European one under the new system. The system of ranking by points is flawed anyway as it identifies the wrong kind of skills. Someone who plays several tournaments week after week and grinds away to get lots of money and points from middling positions is not the kind of player who is necessarily going to have lots of birdies plus the killer instinct in MATCHPLAY, which is a totally different kind of game. One doesn't want journeymen for the Ryder Cup, one wants flair players.

i think IC has to wake up and see this is a modern world its bad enough the captain is forced to take any players from any league table...in golf the captain is really the team manager so say your the manager you then have little choice in the team at least now the captain can pick 25% of the team better than nothing... in cricket/football the manager choses what he considers the best players not who have done well over a season but the best players at the time of the game...time to wake up and modernise golf

I completely disagree with Iain Carter here, and I agree with Monty and the comments above from "smilingoxfordian". I think Europe has done well recently despite, not because of, only having 2 wild cards. When Europe started to give the US a real game all those years ago we had 3 or 4 picks. After the success started to come in the 1980s, the European Tour hijacked the competition for its own ends - i.e. to increase the profile and popularity of the tour. To this end it decided (and who said they should be the ultimate decision maker in this anyway?) to reduce the captain's picks and base it more on the Order of Merit. This was then exposed due to the unsurprising popularity of the the US tour amongst European elite (where they could compete week-in week-out against the best in the world) and the system was broadened to include world ranking points. However, I believe, as has been pointed out already, that the best team is not necessarily produced from the ranks of the journeymen who can qualify without winning anything (like Oliver Wilson last time). Matchplay is a completely different beast from strokeplay and the likes of Seve were the ultimate matchplayers. Last year the team would have benefitted from the experience and ability of Darren Clarke (who I believe would have received Faldo's 3rd pick if he had had one). There should a be a completely separate Ryder Cup committee which overees the selection of both the captain and the team selection process (which does not need to be driven by what the European tour wants).

hope he doesn't just pick all his old mates ...

See the Monty bashers are at it again including you Mr Carter. And just how many Ryder Cups have you played in Mr Carter, never mind how many points you have won? So Alertful thinks he will make a 'real mess of it' - so just like Faldo then? And he will just pick his old mates will he? It will be good to see all the Monty bashers including inept hacks such as you Mr Carter eating their words.

The US have four, so why shoot ourselves in the foot by having only two?

In my opinion it should be the same formula for both sides.

Difficult decision, but the wrong one.

Monty should have been stronger and trusted the existing system and trusted his players. Changing the rule shows weakness, will lead to too much speculation and probably will not change the final 12. Monty himself said recently he did not feel a full member of the team the year Langer picked him. We will have three guys feeling that way, but more importantly there will be fewer guys trying to make the team which will dilute the competion for places.

A safety net of two picks was enough. How will Monty be able to justify not picking the 5th player on the World Ranking or the 6th player on the European List over his third pick. At best it will be a 55%/45% call and the Captain basically has to guess who will play the better golf in three weeks. We all know how difficult it is to guess a flayers form from one week to the next.

They should have left it alone and talked up the strength of the European Tour and the performance of his players on a World stage which is a more posative message.

Well the 4 Wildcards, 3 of whom were rookies, did no harm for the Yanks with a very respectable 8.5 points between them and Hunter Mahan, their 'controversial' pick being their highest points scorer. The only weak spot was Steve Stricker, a very good player, who came up against the on fire Poulter twice in the three matches he played in.

Imagination is working overtime here. Monty will overcook things but he'll make sure the yanks go home empty handed i'm sure although, as i've commented before, Corey Pavin is a very astute choice and his charm offensive really begins when he plays the Wales Open.

Monty will know that this is new and he will look at whoever is in that 5th spot very hard before choosing someone else over them knowing he will have to justify it.

I just want it to be a great event. I'm only afraid at this point of the opening speeches and hope that I'm only nodding off cos Monty doesn't know how to be brief. That's better than the flipping the channel and hiding my face in a cushion which is what happened when Faldo gave his opening speech.

once agin i strongly disagree w/ column writer carter (no surprise there) and i think Give Me A Break! has it right...is mr carter becoming europe's version of jimmy roberts?? (strong media presence who few like or agree w/ and none of the tour players respect) for me it comes down to who do i trust most?? i trust monty, a player so honest and committed to doing what he feels best. if committee's don't like his ideas, maybe they should not have chosen him. but i think they got the right man and it should be great fun come ryder cup time...

Is this argument worthy of a Column?...............2 or 3 ? Who cares?

I couldn't agree more with Ian, I also feel that Monty will show his petulant manner when the play commences. He is to quick to find fault elsewhere than with himself.We have already seen this side of him earlier this year in the far east with photographers and camera men. Imagine what he is going to be like as Captain with the media all around when his team are playing. You can judge from this I'm not a Monty fan. I wonder what, if anything, Rory had to talk to him about after airing his views on the Ryder Cup being an exhibition.

Can someone please tell me why when you go to the "live scores" link on the golf page, although the tabs for the three tours read, from left to right, European, PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, the default leaderboard that comes up is for the US PGA Tour. Why can't it be the European Tour - that's where we live, and that's where most of the players that most of us follow most of the time are playing. If I want US stuff I can go to a US-based web site, thank you very much.

Never mind the extra picks.I am more concerned that Monty will lose his cool too easily with the press and crowd when they start to question his decisions and the American fans tease "Mrs Doubtfire".
Can you also picture Monty's team talks. He doesn't do brief and short and I can imagine a few of the players nodding off. Despite all the dangers I hope we can still win.

What ever Mony does; I believe he deserves all the support he can get. After all what we want for Europe is a win. If we achieve that he will be praised - no matter what he did prior to the Cup itself. However, if we lose then the 'monday night quarter backing' will begin anyway - of that I have no doubt. So good luck to Monty and to us all. Now is way to early to pre-judge his performance.

You have to wonder what kind of people are drawn to a pompous, arrogant, old windbag like Monty. I would seriously examine my life were I to find him in any way appealing. Now that's off my chest, it's croneyism of course, another of Colin's lovely attributes. I suppose he won because the toys were coming out the pram and the bottom lip was starting to quiver. What the F... give the fat brat what he wants.

Comment 19 - genius - agree with every word.

being RC captain clearly means the world to Colin and, because of this, he is likely to be poor in the job ... a bit like you never pull when you're desperate, if you know what I mean

It was not that long ago when the Europeans had three picks but to give the Americans a chance we reduced it to two.

That said, they now have four and unsurprising Monty has asked for more but what is a concern is that he did not ask for four to even it up again.

Why does the governing body not just agree to make things equal on both sides thus stopping all this bickering about differences and make the playing field level again