Poulter pins his hopes on wild card

THE number of candidates hoping to win captain Nick Faldo's favour in the countdown for wild card places at the Ryder Cup increased yesterday when Ian Poulter pulled out of this week's Johnnie Walker championship at Gleneagles.

By opting, instead, to tee up at the Deutsche Bank, a FedEx Cup event in Boston which doesn't count towards qualification, the Englishman can no longer gain an automatic spot for the European team. In that respect, Poulter now finds himself in the same boat as Paul Casey, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, who are also vying for picks. Poulter's late decision not to pursue a top five placing in Perthshire, which was confirmed by a European Tour spokesman last night, means he must hope his runner-up finish in the Open made a lasting impression on the captain. Poulter, 23rd, and Casey, 35th, are the world's highest ranked players not already in the team. Having slipped to 89th in the FedEx standings after missing the cut at the Barclays, Poulter needs to perform well in Boston to have a chance of competing in the BMW and the Tour Championship. As things stand on the Ryder Cup front, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson fill the five automatic spots from the European list going into the Johnnie Walker. However, Martin Kaymer is only a couple of thousand euros behind the Englishman.

While there may yet be other twists and turns before the make-up of the 12 man side is confirmed on Sunday evening, it now looks as if Faldo will pick two from four possibles. Although Casey trails Poulter in both the European and World lists, as well as the world rankings, it would be a surprise if a player who was such an impressive member of the side at the K Club was overlooked.

Faldo has never hidden the emphasis he'll place on current form in making his wild card picks. After finishing seventh at the Open, Casey was eighth in the Bridgestone, 15th in the US PGA, 26th at the Wyndham and seventh at the Barclays. Poulter was 16th at Bridgestone, 31st at the PGA before missing the cut at the Barclays.

Clarke's form hasn't been quite so steady, but his win in Holland was timely. The Ulsterman moved up to 56th in the world rankings yesterday and believes his past experience in the match, as well as an outstanding partnership with Lee Westwood dating back to Brookline in 1999, at least makes him a contender for a pick.

By winning the KLM Open, Clarke also dunted Montgomerie down the pecking order. After taking the last two weeks off to practice and re-group, Monty needs to win, or go very close, at the Johnnie Walker to send Faldo a signal he's still worthy of consideration for an event where he's been the dominant player since Valderrama in 1997. An ever present against the USA since making his debut at Kiawah 17 years ago, Monty is one of Europe's greatest ever Ryder Cup heroes. Yet the fact is the Scot's form since he was runner-up in the French Open hasn't warranted commendation. Only a return at the 11th hour to his very best has any chance of challenging the persuasive wild card argument for Casey and either Poulter or Clarke.

Although he still has plenty to mull over, it would be tricky to imagine a more rewarding turn of events for Faldo than the past weekend. Sergio Garcia proved with a thrilling performance at the Barclays he's not been damaged by that loss to Padraig Harrington at the PGA Championship, Clarke made an equally convincing case for calling on his experience by winning the KLM Open and Casey played well enough at Ridgewood to remain at the front of the queue for a captain's pick.

Faldo could hardly hope to be in a stronger position. Harrington, Garcia, Westwood, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson have secured spots through the world points list and all are performing consistently well. True, there's a doubt about Karlsson's fitness – the Swede has a neck injury and won't play again until the Mercedes-Benz in Cologne, the week before the Ryder Cup – otherwise, the leading lights are firing on all cylinders.

When Garcia holed a 27 foot birdie putt on the first extra hole of a play-off, he looked certain to win until Vijay Singh followed him into the cup from 26 feet. While the Fijian went on to birdie the next hole and edge the title, Faldo could take nothing but heart from Garcia's relaxed attitude.

In commentary for CBS, Faldo also jocularly suggested he'd give Casey a wild card if he holed a 25 foot putt on the home hole to post six under par. When told of the remark later, Casey, who made the putt, quipped: "Oh, we've got it on tape; the lawyers would have a field day with that one…"