Colin Montgomerie names his European Ryder Cup side‎

The European Ryder Cup squad is set. On Sunday Captain Colin Montgomerie selected his three captain picks to join the nine that were already in.

Those who got the nod were Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari and Luke Donald. Let the second-guessing begin.

Left out of Monty’s team were both Justin Rose and Sean Casey. The Harrington pick may be the biggest head scratcher – he has not won in over two years and has dropped to number 18 in the world rankings.

Six of the 12 players in the European squad are Ryder Cup rookies and as a result, the veterans will be heavily relied upon. Lee Westwood, perhaps the world’s best player, will be recovering from a calf injury and will not have played much golf going into the matches.

Because of the injury to Westwood, Ian Poulter and Like Donald may end up taking the lead of this team. Donald has a stellar 5-1-1 career Ryder Cup mark.

The inclusion of players such as Kaymer and Hanson has put captain Montgomerie in tough situation. Leaving both Rose and Casey out was not what he had in mind.

Monty stubbornly defended his pick of Harrington, who he said no one would want to face in match play.

Just in case Monty didn’t know, Harrington is 0-7-2 in his last nine Ryder Cup matches. Seems he has been quite beatable.

US squad captain Corey Pavin makes his four picks on 7 September and the leading candidates after the weekend’s Barclays Tournament are Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink and Sean O’Hair.

The full European team to challenge the Americans in Wales in early October:

Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari, Ross Fisher, Francesco Molinari, Miquel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson.