Tuesday, June 10, 2008

WORK STILL TO DO FOR HARRINGTON

WORK STILL TO DO FOR HARRINGTON

Padraig Harrington's joint fourth place in America still leaves him outside a top-10 automatic spot in Europe's Ryder Cup standings.

Sergio Garcia tied with Harrington in Memphis and he moves up from fifth to fourth in the cup standings, while Graeme McDowell's eighth place in Austria was enough to lift him from 10th to ninth in the points table.

The top 10 who would earn places in Nick Faldo's team as things stand are: Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson, Oliver Wilson, Nick Dougherty, McDowell and Martin Kaymer.

Open champion Harrington and Luke Donald would currently be clear favourites for Faldo's two wild cards.

Latest leading places in the European Ryder Cup tables after the Bank Austria Golf Open and Stanford St Jude Championship (top five on world list on August 31 qualify, plus next five on European list. Captain Faldo then adds two wild cards):

World List:

(Capitals indicate players currently in qualifying positions)

1 LEE WESTWOOD 176.12
2 JUSTIN ROSE 165.25
3 HENRIK STENSON 158.22
4 SERGIO GARCIA 157.22
5 MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ 156.86
6 Robert Karlsson 142.93
Luke Donald 134.66
7 Padraig Harrington 132.47
9 Daniel Chopra 117.90
10 Martin Kaymer 116.45
11 Ian Poulter 109.20
12 Oliver Wilson 105.05

European List:

1 Jimenez 1,640,753
2 Westwood 1,618,065
3 ROBERT KARLSSON 1,616,636
4 Stenson 1,241,701
5 Rose 1,239,606
6 OLIVER WILSON 1,229,157
7 NICK DOUGHERTY 1,017,694
8 GRAEME McDOWELL 975,322
9 MARTIN KAYMER 959,244
10 Soren Hansen 936,057
11 Soren Kjeldsen 883,485
12 Steve Webster 832,105


GARCIA ROCKETS INTO RYDER CONTENTION
Falcons GM says he’s had offers for No. 3 pick