Shinnecock leaves Europeans reeling

SEVEN out of nineteen survived the cut at Shinnecock Hills.

Sergio Garcia on ten over was best of that lot in spite of finishing with an 80 for eleven over. Daniel Chopra, a Swede trying to make a living in the United States, qualified for the Open and came next at 12 over.

Chugging along behind them in total anonymity were the well fancied Padraig Harrington, 15 over; Lee Westwood, 16 over; Joakim Haeggman and Phillip Price, 22 over, and Alex Cejka, 23 over.

Apart from Chopra, who harbours no ambitions in that direction, all are in the running for the European Ryder Cup side, indeed most are already certainties to line out at Oakland Hills in September.

No sign, though, of the so-called young guns like Fredrik Jacobson, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose nor of the long established Darren Clarke. They were already back home licking their wounds and wondering what had gone wrong. Colin Montgomerie, the match winner in 2002, Jesper Parnevik and Luke Donald didn't even qualify.

None of this paints a very healthy picture of Europe's prospects.

Harrington was at pains to point out that the Ryder Cup is poles apart from an individual event like the US Open, that they would be the underdogs as usual but that in the end there would be only a point or two between the sides.

Neither Bernhard Langer, the captain, nor his vice-captain Anders Forsbrand even bothered to turn up and keep a watching brief at Shinnecock so the next best thing was to turn to Haeggman, another of the backroom team but very much a likely starter for Europe because of his fine form this year, to see how he saw the situation.

Although one of those to suffer grievously in Sunday's final round at Shinnecock, taking a nine at the 10th on the way to a closing 83, the Swede was cheerful and philosophical.

He admitted to surprise at the failure of the Europeans to do a lot better, saying: "When I came here, I felt it was the greatest chance one of us would have to win a US Open.

"I think it was the extremeness of the greens, they were so fast and so slopey, we were struggling with the whole thing but yes, I did think one or two of us would do really well.

"As for the Ryder Cup, they can't set the course up like this and if they do, it's match-play and it's so different from this week. You've got to be a little more aggressive than in a stroke-play event like this when you're trying to save your par more than anything else. I don't think they have any more courses like Shinnecock in America and I'm certainly glad they're not playing the Ryder Cup here. I think it will be fine but again from my experience of The Belfry the last time round, we tried to slow the greens, not to have deep rough around the greens, make the driving area suit us. I'm sure they'll set up Oakland to suit them and that's what the Ryder Cup is all about."

There are times when you suspect these guys want to divorce themselves from reality.

Harrington said: "We don't play courses like this in Europe, we play stadium courses that are often softer than what we play in the States."

Haeggman claimed Shinnecock was tougher than anything back home: "Even Birkdale was a nice afternoon walk compared with this."

Perhaps, but the fact is that the leaderboard at Shinnecock proliferated with South Africans and Americans to whom the conditions were also alien. Not a European in sight.

Haeggman's goal is to be a player rather than one of the captain's assistants at Oakland Hills and sees his next three tournaments, the Smurfit European Open at The K-Club next week, the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and the Open Championship as crucial in that respect. He really only has to keep his head above water to achieve that ambition and that will leave skipper Bernhard Langer with the task of finding a new associate to partner his controversial choice of another Swede, Anders Forsbrand, as his vice-captain.

"We have already agreed on that," said Haeggman. "My goal at the moment is to be a player at Oakland Hills. I've played so well so far this year and in spite of what happened here, I still feel good, so I'm looking forward to getting back home and regrouping and getting ready for The K-Club, Loch Lomond and the Open Championship."

While there was an understandable sense of doom and gloom among Europeans at Shinnecock, the Americans didn't really have a whole lot to get excited about either where the Ryder Cup was concerned.

Phil Mickelson was an obvious exception but several other team contenders were conspicuous by their absence. Jeff Maggert, always a force in the majors, was right up there but is well back in the team rankings at present. Fred Funk, Steve Flesch, Jay Haas and Christ DiMarco all strengthened their respective hands but to be truthful none would have you exactly shaking in your boots.

ON the other hand, Davis Love III111 missed the cut, Tiger Woods' travails continue and anyway his Ryder Cup record is distinctly poor.

Jim Furyk is still struggling with a serious wrist injury and David Toms and Charles Howell III111 were among those who made as little impression as the best of the Europeans. As Joakim Haeggman said, it's still a long way to Ryder Cup time and Harrington is probably right that there will be little or nothing between the sides.

Still, of the two captains, Hal Sutton has the most to be happy about and Bernhard Langer has the most to worry about.