in Golf Articles

No single golfer has been able to stop Tiger Woods of late - but could an entire team of top golfers take him down? Team Europe will get a chance to tame Tiger next month when they take on Team United States in the 36th edition of the in Ireland.

Woods, though, won’t be alone when the tournament gets underway at The K Club in Straffan on September 22. U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman finalized his lineup last week by selecting veteran golfers Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank to fill the final two spots. Both Cink and Verplank have been a part of the Ryder Cup team in the past.

Those two will join the 10 American golfers who had accumulated the most Ryder Cup points through last week’s PGA Championship. Woods, of course, leads the way on that list, followed by Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, and Chad Campbell.

The complete Top 10:

01 Tiger Woods --- 4,825.000
02 Phil Mickelson --- 2,474.375
03 Jim Furyk --- 2,076.000
04 Chad Campbell --- 1,129.602
05 David Toms --- 1,072.250
06 Chris DiMarco --- 830.000
07 Vaughn Taylor --- 780.833
08 J.J. Henry --- 778.750
09 Zach Johnson --- 756.477
10 Brett Wetterich --- 746.000

Taylor, Henry, Johnson, and Wetterich will all be playing in their first Ryder Cup next month, while the other eight (including Cink and Verplank) are all veterans of the team.

Team Europe won’t be finalized until after the BMW International Open is played in Munich, Germany later this month. European qualification is based on two lists - the Ryder Cup World Points List, and the European Points List. World Points are based on the World Golf Ranking, while European Points are accumulated only at events that count toward the Order of Merit. The Top 5 golfers on each of those lists at the cutoff date are included on the Ryder Cup team. Here are the current standings for each list:

Ryder Cup World Points List

01 Luke Donald --- 223.58
02 Sergio Garcia --- 221.63
03 Henrik Stenson --- 211.51
04 David Howell --- 210.15
05 Colin Montgomerie --- 207.88
06 Jose Maria Olazabal --- 203.89
07 Paul Casey --- 165.33
08 Robert Karlsson --- 155.86
09 Padraig Harrington --- 154.46
10 Carl Pettersson --- 154.12

Ryder Cup European Points List

01 Colin Montgomerie --- 2,434,316.11
02 David Howell --- 2,284,846.02
03 Sergio Garcia --- 1,911,271.35
04 Robert Karlsson --- 1,902,799.25
05 Henrik Stenson --- 1,873,034.95
06 Paul Casey --- 1,721,833.85
07 Padraig Harrington --- 1,514,027.44
08 Paul McGinley --- 1,473,112.24
09 Jose Maria Olazabal --- 1,392,923.22
10 Luke Donald --- 1,387,770.28

If a golfer in the Top 5 of the Ryder Cup European Points List has already qualified for the team (via the Ryder Cup World Points List), the next unqualified player on the list is added instead. The team captain then gets to make the final two selections by himself.

And leading Team Europe this time around will be Ian Woosnam. He’ll be charged with assembling a team that can beat the United States in the Ryder Cup tournament for the third straight time. Europe came out on top in 2002 at The Belfry in Birmingham, and in 2004 at the Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The last time the Americans were winners was in 1999, when they edged the Europeans 14.5 to 13.5 at The Country Club in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to stop a two-tournament losing skid.

In fact, the Americans lost so badly at Oakland Hills last time out that even Woods’ inclusion on their team isn’t enough to sway the oddsmakers in their favor. Europe topped the United States 18.5 to 9.5 in 2004, and they’re pegged as the -110 favorites next month in Ireland. The Americans are the +110 underdogs, while a tie result is listed at +800 odds. In the event of a tie, the Cup would remain with the defending champions.