Sam: I’d pick Pádraig, Rose, Casey

FORMER Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance says Pádraig Harrington, Justin Rose and Paul Casey would be his wildcard picks to face the USA.

That would mean no place for Luke Donald in Colin Montgomerie’s European team for Celtic Manor in October.

“First of all, I would put Rose in,” Torrance told BBC Scotland. “He has won twice in America this year. Then I would put Harrington in and you have to decide between Casey and Donald. I would probably pick Casey.”

Montgomerie faces what Torrance concedes is the hardest wild-card choices of recent times because Casey, Donald, Harrington and Rose have not accumulated enough points.

And all four have decided to play at the FedEx Cup play-offs in the US instead of taking their last chance to qualify automatically with a good finish at this week’s Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Montgomerie must make his selection known on Sunday evening and Torrance believes his fellow Scot will take as much time as possiblebefore making a final decision.

“There are a lot of connotations,” said Torrance. “It will be tricky.

“He certainly won’t have made his mind up yet. I never made up my mind until probably five minutesbefore the time came when I had to make up my mind.

“That’s how difficult these decisions are and Colin will weigh up everything and make the decision. It’s not easy. It probably is the hardest.”

World number nine Casey is the highest ranked of the four wild-card favourites, one place ahead of Donald, with Harrington 18th and Rose four places further back. However, Torrance thinks Montgomerie will not only take into consideration current form but possible partnerships in the two-ball and fourball pairs.

“It is definitely the strength of the European team that he ishaving to leave one of those four out,” he added. “All four of them have been playing well.

“But there are others –Henrik Stenson, RobertKarlsson. Bernhard Langer must have had a glimmer of a pick. He won two (senior) majors this year and would bring experience and with Martin Kaymer in the team, another German.”

Torrance believes the tough choice facing Montgomerieindicated the Europeans would start as favourites. “I wouldn’t underestimate the Americans, but there’s a lot of things in our favour, the course, the weather and the strength of our team.”