Rose baffled by Poulter’s Ryder snub
European number one Justin Rose admitted he was “a little bit surprised” to hear close friend Ian Poulter was staying in America this week rather than fight for his place in the Ryder Cup team.
Captain Nick Faldo will announce the European team and his two wildcard selections after the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Sunday.
No fewer than seven players, including Poulter and Rose, were due to compete for the remaining three qualifying places and book their place on the flight to Valhalla next month.
But rather than taking one last opportunity to the impress the European captain, Poulter, the Open Championship runner-up, has opted to withdraw from the tournament and play on the PGA Tour instead, thus pinning his hopes solely on a captain’s pick.
“Maybe he feels like he’s done enough – that’s all I can imagine,” Rose said. “I think it’s going to be a tricky decision that Nick faces. Just reading between the lines he [Poulter] is certainly very well placed in terms of world rankings and The Open is still relatively recent.
“But I haven’t spoken to him this week and I’ll be quite interested obviously to hear what his thoughts are.”
Seven players have already secured their spots for the Ryder Cup team, while Rose, Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson currently occupy the last three automatic places. They can still be caught though by Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty if they perform well this weekend.
Faldo’s dilemma, however, lies with the two wildcard slots.
Seasoned Ryder Cup campaigner Darren Clarke is in fine form after winning the Dutch Open last weekend and must be the favourite, while Poulter, Paul Casey and the experienced Colin Montgomerie are also in the his thoughts.