Monty gets third Ryder wild card pick

EUROPEAN Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has been given a third wild card for next year’s match at Celtic Manor in Wales.

The United States won back the trophy last September after Paul Azinger sought and was granted a further two captain’s picks, making four in all.

Montgomerie pushed for an increase on Europe’s two when the players’ committee met last night in Baltray, where the 3 Irish Open begins tomorrow.

The decision to grant him just one extra shows the importance still placed on trying to get the circuit’s stars to play in as many Tour events as possible.

Paul Casey and Ian Poulter were both selected by Nick Faldo last year after deciding to stay in America for the final stretch of the qualifying race.

Faldo then left out Darren Clarke despite the 2006 cup hero winning two tournaments.

Under the new system, five players will still be selected from the European money list and four rather than five from the world ranking points gained in the 12-month qualifying period starting this September.

Those nine players will then be joined by three captain’s picks to make up the 12-man team to take on the USA at the Celtic Manor Resort, in Wales in October 2010.

Montgomerie is expected to give a press conference today when the subject will be discussed.

Meanwhile, former European Tour player John McHenry, a golf consultant for this week’s Irish Open, has joined 3 chief Robert Finnegan in telling Keith Waters, the European Tour’s director of international policy that May is not suited to the staging of the tournament.

“We’ve made it perfectly clear that we would like a change of date,” McHenry said. “In our view, the month of May is too cold in Ireland. He accepted the point. I just said, we want to review this issue and he has given us a guarantee that the Tour will be addressing this issue in the next couple of weeks.

“I’ve made it clear that we have pumped large sums of money into the event and that there are very few people spending like we’re going to spend. I don’t want to hear excuses about Pádraig Harrington because it is my intention to sit down with Pádraig and understand what the best dates are for him.

“The next time I sit down with Keith, I will be very clear in my mind as to what are Pádraig’s preferred dates. It will be the same with all the Irish players. I aim to cover off all the bases, to be able to say that we want it in the holiday period when families can get to the event.”

It also emerged that unless 3’s preferred date of a week or two prior to the British Open is made available, they don’t see any particular reason to stage their event on a links course.

Even though the weather forecast isn’t the most favourable, there is already a big bonus in the shape of John Daly’s arrival from a second place finish in Italy on Sunday and the fact that he remains a huge public favourite.