The Ryder Cup team is finalised, everyone's talking about it (not all enthusiastically, not least myself), and we're ready for it. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen for another couple of weeks. We back to the week-in-week-out golf. The tension and incentives for various players have been removed, so don't be surprised to see them taking a well-earned rest. Congratulations in particular to Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson, who played some great golf last week to make sure of their places in the team. Wilson in particular played the best back nine of his life, given the circumstances, to improbably survive the cut and fight all the way to the end.
This week - all eyes have to turn to Jimenez first of all - he's the senior man here, and will be looking to put together a bit more of the form he showed early this year before the Ryder Cup. This year, he's very much one of the elder statesmen, without the likes of Monty and Clarke, and other players will be looking to him. He's quietened down a little over the past weeks, but expect him to be back this week.
Another player I'm backing this week is Welshman Bradley Dredge. He's had an up-and-down year by his standards, but he's won on this course before (2006, I think), and showed some good play last week despite not quite being in the final reckoning. Bradley's an excellent player with an excellent temperament, and earlier in the year I'd hoped that we'd see him make a serious bid for a Ryder Cup spot. Unfortunately that didn't materialise, but I'm sure he'll be there in the future.
Marc Warren and Mikko Ilonen are two other players I'd like to see have a good week, and wouldn't be at all surprised if they did. Warren had some pressure on him last week as defending champion, but now he's back to the sort of week he's used to. He's been playing good golf recently and it might well be time for another good finish.
Ilonen has come on leaps and strides in the past couple of years, and I'm always excited when I see him on the entry list for a tournament. He's got buckets of talent and this could well be another of his weeks.
A word for last week's champion? Havret played beautiful golf to pick up his third Tour title, and his second in Scotland. He's definitely a player who thrives on confidence from previous weeks, and as long as he didn't spend too much time celebrating this week, don't be surprised to see him in the mix again come Sunday afternoon. Until a couple of years ago, Gregory had a problem with finishing the job, even for a top-5 finish, but he's come on enormously now and has experience down the stretch in the final round.
As we head into the third playoff event in the States it's worth having a look at that as well. Vijay is back playing the sort of golf he did in his 9-win 2004. I haven't yet seen whether he's confirmed that he'll play this week in the BMW - having won the first to playoffs it's not essential, but Vijay's not a player who minds several-week stretches of golf, so I'd expect him to play, and quite possibly win again, this week.
Tonight Paul Azinger's going to reveal his own wildcard picks for the Ryder Cup. He's got four as opposed to Faldo's two, but I'm still not sure where they're going to go.
I'd expect him to take Stricker - he's an experienced Tour player and matchplayer, and is only just missing out on the automatic spot. I'd probably give one to Zach Johnson - hasn't had a great season, but was very impressive in his first appearance in the matches last time round. He's the sort of guy who can get people fired up as well, and I think Azinger knows that and will reward him.
The others are trickier - I'd probably take two out of Sean O'Hair, Rocco Mediate, Woody Austin, and D.J. Trahan. Nne of these guys necessarily shouts out Ryder Cup to you, but they've all been playing well this year - Trahan's had one of his best seasons ever. O'Hair's been quiet for a while, but he's got loads of talent, and I see him as the sort of young blood they need to put up against the likes of Wilson, Poulter, Casey, and even Sergio.
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