Sports Then and Now

Jose Maria Olazabal will have two wild card picks to make for the 2012 Ryder Cup.

New Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal will only have two wild card picks for the 2012 tournament after the tournament committee accepted his proposals to have the number reduced.

Previous Ryder Cup captains had the option of picking three wild cards in addition to the top nine European players in the world ranking list.

Another change sees the European money list take precedent over the world ranking list for automatic qualification for the team. The changes will help Europe’s plight to retain the cup in 2012, and bigfreebet will likely install them as favorites for the tournament.
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After a disappointing 2010 season, can Padraig Harrington show the fight needed to help Europe win the Ryder Cup?

With the Ryder Cup only two weeks away now, many Ryder Cup Betting pundits, experts and commentators are already suggesting that the European team simply need to turn up in order to win. However, whilst they are certainly a good team, is it just possible that the Europeans are being hyped up too much in their tag as favourites?

Whilst the European team’s players have, on the whole, displayed a fantastic level of form this season, the Ryder Cup is a competition that can overwhelm even the most seasoned of professionals. With high hopes surrounding players such as Martin Kaymer, currently being tipped far and wide in the golfing world for a bright future, it is just possible that the levels of expectation will become too great, leaving Kaymer and other debutants looking and feeling like rabbits stuck in the headlights. Read the rest of this entry →

Martin Kaymer has proven that you can win a major cahmpionship while playing primarily on the European Tour.

Whilst some golfing fans would have loved nothing more than to have seen the likes of Justin Rose and Paul Casey fighting it out against their PGA Tour rivals, the very fact that these individuals missed out on a place in the European Ryder Cup team is testament to the fact that the European Tour is benefiting greatly from the additional level of competition that the qualification process for the Cup generates.

Although some people who bet on Ryder Cup events will no doubt argue that the decision to continue to award points only to those competing on a tour that has traditionally been considered weaker than the US PGA is a mistake which could cost the European team the chance to win back the Ryder Cup, the majority of golf pundits have suggested that the mythical lure of the competition keeps players competing on the lower profile tour.

With players such as Martin Kaymer showing Ryder Cup betting pundits that they are capable of winning majors despite not playing week in, week out with golfers such as Phil Mickelson, and with the European team still earning itself the status of overwhelming favourites ahead of the Ryder Cup, there seems almost to be a case for only players taking part on the European Tour deserving a place on the team, with that rule even applying to wildcard picks.

Should this come into force, players such as Kaymer would find themselves in a situation in which they are unable to use the European tour solely as a launching pad from which to further their quest to compete in the more lucrative US Tour. Read the rest of this entry →

Colin Montgomerie has put his reputation on the line with his Ryder Cup decisions.

On October 3rd Colin Montgomerie will either be sitting down to toast his European team’s victory, or he will be spending the evening, and perhaps the months and years to come, attempting to figure out how he failed to mastermind a victory that had for a long period of time seemed almost inevitable.

Should it be the latter, many fans will be looking at his decision to choose Padraig Harrington as part of his European team as one of the key moments that helped to shape the cup. The Ryder Cup betting makes the home side firm favourites, but some fear they could find themselves carrying some deadweight.

With no major victories since 2008, the choice of Padraig Harrington has failed to inspire anyone, with Ian Woosnam the latest high-profile name to suggest either Justin Rose or Paul Casey should have got the nod ahead of the Irish man. Read the rest of this entry →

It is still unclear whether Tiger Woods will be part of the U.S. team at the 2010 Ryder Cup.

Twelve months ago, anyone suggesting that golf’s world number one and the sport’s most high-profile player wouldn’t be taking part in the 2010 Ryder Cup would have been greeted with a reply of “Is he injured?” or “Are you mad?” However, with golf’s most famous event rapidly approaching, has the time come for the mighty Tiger to be denied a wildcard pick and be left to watch the competition on television alongside millions of fans?

Despite having shown earlier promise when he returned to the clubhouse after taking time off to sort out his personal problems, Woods has failed to reach the heights that had seen him become possibly golf’s greatest ever player.

Having openly admitted he is struggling with his game, and suffering the ignominy of requiring a wildcard pick just to make the team, it is now time to leave the Tiger at home and instead look to the form guide when choosing who captain Corey Pavin should be taking with him to Celtic Manor. Read the rest of this entry →

Dustin Johnson will look to bounce back from his PGA ending at the upcoming Ryder Cup.

With golf’s most high-profile event, the Ryder Cup, rapidly approaching and his top player (and world number one) Tiger Woods drastically out of form, the last thing the US team captain Corey Pavin needed was to see one of his stars make a schoolboy error… yet that is exactly what Dustin Johnson did in the recent PGA Championship.

With his high-profile mistake creating yet more negativity for the US team, those who like to place a Ryder Cup Bet may be forgiven for ignoring placing bets on whether the Europeans can regain the trophy and instead turn towards looking at the margin of victory that they will regain the famous trophy by.

In spite of this, Pavin believes that Johnson will recover his spirits in time for the confident European fans to eat their words, suggesting that with so many key players needing captain’s picks to make the European side, the Americans can pull off an unlikely victory. Read the rest of this entry →