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All his Ryder rookies will play before the Sunday singles, says Monty

By Mark Garrod
Published on
All his Ryder rookies will play before the Sunday singles, says Monty

Europe's six Ryder Cup rookies can all expect to play at least one match before the singles at Celtic Manor. Half of Captain Colin Montgomerie's side has never played in the Ryder Cup before, and that is the rookies Europe has paraded since there were seven in Boston in 1999. On that occasion, Captain Mark James left out Andrew Coltart, Jean Van de Velde and Jarmo Sandelin until the last day. All three lost in singles, and Europe, from 10-6 ahead after two days, lost to the Americans 14 ½ to 13 ½ as the United States team mounted the biggest come-from-behind rally to win in Ryder Cup history. "I will try to play everybody as soon as possible," Montgomerie said. And when reminded of what James did at Brookline, he added: "That won't happen. They are not really rookies in my eyes. “When I played for the first time in 1991, I felt very much an underling to the likes of (Nick) Faldo, Seve (Ballesteros), (Bernhard) Langer and Woosie (Ian Woosnam) -- gods of the game,” he explained. "Now we have a major winner in Martin Kaymer, another who has gone so close in Rory McIlroy, a world match play champion in Ross Fisher." The other three are Sweden’s Peter Hanson and Italians Edoardo and Francesco Molinari, the first brothers to play on the same Ryder Cup team since Bernard and Goeff Hunt in 1963. Francesco's consistency earned him his first Ryder Cup berth by finishing seventh in the points, while Edoardo and Hanson have each won twice this season, including the final two counting events. Edoardo Molinari is not the first player to make his debut after being given a wild card. Luke Donald was picked by Langer six years ago, as was Coltart by James and Jesper Parnevik by Ballesteros in 1997 once Miguel Angel Martin had agreed to stand down because of injury. America won with six rookies two years ago. They were Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Boo Weekley, JB Holmes, Steve Stricker and Ben Curtis.