Elementary, Captain Watson

To the surprise of exactly no one, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson has consistently stated that should a Certain Eldrick Woods not qualify for the U.S. team that he would be a Captain's pick.  Who knew he was thought of that highly?

Now, The Telegraph's James Corrigan (via Shackelford though I can't link to the original because Shack's link is bad) informs us that Captain Watson has realized the error of his ways and recanted this opinion.  OK, not so much...here' the exchange:

Q. We can't stop thinking about the Ryder Cup. If Tiger Woods only played in one more tournament the rest of the year, because of his injury, would you consider picking him?

TOM WATSON: One more tournament? I'm not going to answer that. Tiger I hope just basically gets well and starts playing well again. If he gets well and is playing well, I'll pick him. But one more tournament, I don't know. I can't answer that.

My BS detector is in the red zone, and I just hope the intrepid reported doesn't pull a muscle patting himself on the back for his hard-hitting, take no prisoners line of inquiry.  Really, that's how they teach you to draw out an interview subject in Journalism School?

Watson's prior support of Woods has drawn some flak from the chattering classes, such as this from an earlier Corrigan piece:

No doubt, Woods is special, but not in Ryder Cup terms. Look at recent Ryder Cups and he is hardly Messi at Barcelona. Look at the last Ryder Cup and he was hardly Ibrahimovic at Barcelona. He won a half point at four matches and if anyone still feels the inclination to point the finger of blame for the Miracle/Meltdown of Medinah they should not go no further than Woods and Steve Stricker. Indeed, the only time America won this century, Woods was absent through injury.

OK, that last dig will leave a mark.  We all understand that Tiger has disappointed at the Ryder Cup, but he's going to be there if he's healthy.  Now there are some complications, as absent a quicker-than-expected return he likely won't qualify for the FedEx playoffs and may have nowhere realistic to play to get his game up to snuff.  Way to think things through, Commish.  

But, I'd been promising to see how the teams are shaking out.  With the ponies past the quarter-pole, no time like the present:

Here's the top twelve for the U.S., with a reminder that the top nine qualify and Watson gets three picks:

1. Bubba Watson

2. Jimmy Walker
3. Dustin Johnson
4. Jordan Spieth
5. Patrick Reed
6. Matt Kuchar
7. Jason Dufner
8. Phil Mickelson
9. Harris English
10. Zach Johnson
11. Chris Kirk
12. Webb Simpson

Chris Kirk remains theoretically within reach, but it's unlikely we'll see him at Gleeagles.  Other than that, this may not be too far from the team that takes the field in late September.  The next three on the points list are Ryan Moore, Kevin Stadler and Rickie Fowler.  I'm in the camp that think Rickie's work with Butch Harmon is headed in the right direction (seeing him fly the bunker on ANGC's No. didn't hurt), but it's still early days there.

Other names we might look for include Keegan Bradley (currently No. 19), Hunter Mahan (23), Bill Haas(25) and Brandt Snedeker (28).  The aforementioned Woods and Stricker pairing are Nos. 45 and 49, respectively.

It's not a team that will inspire fear, composed of brash rookies (Walker, English, Reed and Spieth), grizzled veterans playing poorly (Phil, Dufner, DJ and Webb), a top-ten machine that can't get to the clubhouse on the Sabbath (Kooch) and Bubba.  The good news is that there's still much golf to be played.

As for Europe, theirs is a two-step tango, so I'll just list their top twelve as per current standings:

1. Victor Dubuisson
2. Jamie Donaldson
3. Thomas Bjorn
4. Henrik Stenson
5. Sergio Garcia
6. Rory McIlroy
7. Ian Poulter
8. Justin Rose
9. Luke Donald 
10. The Mechanic
11. Stephen Gallacher
12. Joost Luiten

As with the U.S. team, those last three would require a Captain's pick and the latter two seemingly would have to earn their way on.  The big surprise here is that Luke Donald remains on the list despite struggling to make cuts.  That projects as a tough call for Paul McGinley, as Luke is a tenacious match player competitor, but he has to show some measure of form, doesn't he?

Amongst those just below Joost on the list are Graeme McDowell, Jonas Blixt and Francisco Molinari.  Lee Westwood is several spots further down the list, despite his back-door top ten at the Masters, but there's still plenty of time to play his way on.