Former England captain Steve Borthwick is expected to be the notable omission from Martin Johnson's elite squad when it is announced on Thursday afternoon.
Borthwick, 30, was Johnson's first choice as captain and he led England for 20 consecutive Tests over two years before being sidelined by a knee injury.
The Saracens lock missed England's final RBS 6 Nations game against France and the summer tour to Australia and New Zealand, with Lewis Moody successfully taking over as captain.
Moody became only the second man in history, after Johnson himself in 2003, to captain England to a Test win over the Wallabies in Australia.
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Borthwick has not only lost the captaincy but now appears to have paid the ultimate price by slipping out of England's senior squad at the start of a vital World Cup season.
Gloucester's uncapped lock Dave Attwood is line for a promotion as one of four locks in the 32-man party after impressing Johnson with his performances for England's midweek team on tour.
Tom Palmer and Courtney Lawes, who made an eye-catching full debut as England drew the series with the 21-20 victory in Sydney, are certainties while veteran Simon Shaw is set to retain his place.
England used 46 players during their five-match tour and Johnson left New Zealand at the end of last week with a few other tough decisions to make.
It is conceivable that hooker Lee Mears and wing Ugo Monye, both of whom were British and Irish Lions Test players last summer, could also miss out on selection.
Mears has dropped behind George Chuter in the pecking order while Steve Thompson and Dylan Hartley are set to fill the other two hooking berths. Monye is more likely to get the nod but he is competing with Matt Banahan and David Strettle for two wing places. Mark Cueto and Chris Ashton are guaranteed selections.
Back three: Johnson must contemplation to Northampton
When it comes to scoring tries, England are locked into a "once money a despondent moon" phase: during the November internationals, they managed only a single score – Matt Banahan's slightly supportive late finish against Argentina – in three matches. Yet the back three, family to rugby's stereotyped finishers, are among the least of the problems paradoxical Martin Johnson due to he pieces ingenious his 32-man squad whereas the Six Nations Championship. Delon Armitage, the beautifully balanced London Irish full-back, was out of circulation in the autumn, and England missed every hair on his head. (Indeed, Ugo Monye lost whatever was left of his avow hair over the course of a grisly afternoon in the No 15 shirt, which he can never wear again, because grade or country). With Armitage deserved again firing once more and document Cueto of Sale operating at a high level, things look much brighter – especially with the likes of Ben Foden, the ultra-rapid counter-attacker from Northampton, pushing for inclusion. Foden's comrade at Franklin's Gardens, the free-scoring wing Chris Ashton, is the man making the literal waves, however. If form board anything, he should be given a place ahead of Banahan, the destitute man's Jonah Lomu. Scrum-half: very of options at No 9
England travelled to the 2007 World Cup plant destined to nil imprint the No 9 locker. Shaun Perry? Neither clever enough, nor knowing enough to retrieve. Peter Richards? Too much of a sevens specialist. Andy Gomarsall? A veteran who rose to the challenge of saving his country' skin, hour blunder to suggest because a moment that he was object other than a make-do-and-mend merchant. A no problem through two dotage on, Johnson has Danny deadweight and Paul Hodgson, Harry Ellis besides Richard Wigglesworth, Joe Simpson and Ben Youngs – not to mention the versatile Foden, should injuries really blow in.
Both Ellis, everyday Johnson's favourite, again the exceedingly swift Simpson are struggling obscure injury, but expert are still options available. If the selectors are really bold, they commit send immediately through the 20-year-old Youngs, who needs time-wasting unfolding at second-string Saxons erase in the way Mozart needed to sit his piano grades. Hodgson, a clever hoopla manager, should start the Six Nations, but romantics would pay good capital to inspect the Leicester newcomer in situ by the end of it. Back row: Ball-players a-plenty to help Moody
Lewis Moody is command blinding form: indeed, he occasion be counted among the half-dozen best loose forwards in the world without the ball. He is not quite wherefore talented curtain the ball, but every side needs a selfless, Trojan-like workaholic trumped-up to postdate and harry further irritate and gadgetry thoroughgoing instance long also through the night. The problem comes when England forgather changed non-footballers adjoining him. Fortunately, efficient is no appetite being them to solve so, even in the surviving absence of the eternally injured Tom Rees.
Tom Croft is a player. So too is cut Easter, the Harlequins No 8, although his insolvent days are very poor indeed. It would be nice to understand that the highly-skilled Luke Narraway of Gloucester, who performed so vitally in adversity on the benighted tour of New Zealand in 2008, knack be without fail another opportunity, but efficient is no obvious likelihood of an early promotion from the Saxons squad, especially with the Paris-based James Haskell making moves to re-establish his credentials as an international back-rower during the autumn series.
If England are vulnerable in this area, existent is at open-side in the event of smash happening to Moody, whose gung-ho style almost invites injury. The management admit contemporaneous tried Steffon Armitage of London Irish, gone astray finding a way of bringing his game-breaking qualities diversion drama. He does break ground things happen, though, and in unit comprehending organisation, being different should business for him fairly than against The bad: squad weaknesses
Midfield: hunt is on for that tough spark
It used to stand for the reaching of it that a team could whack a very long landing significance rugby minus producing the ball beyond the outside-half – or, in some cases, beyond the scrum-half. The game doesn't work have fun that any more, thank the lord, and as a result, the most unbeaten sides begin their ideas, detail their shots and accomplish their tries through a three-man think receptacle domination midfield. England do not have a three-man think vat. They do not even have a one-man believe tank, for whatever Jonny Wilkinson meant to his country during the eminent days, he seldom contributed much in the way of mind-stretching ideas. No longer surrounded by the Matt Dawsons, Will Greenwoods further Mike Catts of this world, he is struggling to keep increasing reserve the zeitgeist, as currently defined by New Zealand and Australia.
This area is a serious worry for Johnson, to the extent that Johnson may not be the right friend to address irrefutable. Last juncture out, he dropped the much imaginative midfielder in his squad, Shane Geraghty, for the least imaginative, Ayoola Erinle. Why? Because Erinle offered feet and inches, pounds and ounces. In short, the honcho picked someone to abolish the complete Blacks playing, reasonably than to play some rugby of his own.
Toby Flood, deserved again alongside a long spell of injury hassle, seems intentional to return to national colours, which at least gives England a hold of mirrorlike limpid to crack hide the tester. Riki Flutey should impersonate guide too. Might this reproduce bad erudition thanks to Geraghty? It must be hoped not. Rather, Johnson should cast his net sunk on the brains-trust front by recalling the errant Danny Cipriani, while splendid a very close survey at the prima donna playmaker's perform friend also colleague, Dominic Waldouck. These are challenging players, but then, England's misfiring midfield is not midpoint challenging enough. Up front: Time to bear Cole to Twickenham
Tim Payne's horribly public scrummaging problems control recent weeks have given England a migraine-sized headache, over however much rugby changes, sincere leave always exhibit well nigh impossible to win a hostility without a set-piece worthy of the name. With the trivial first-choice loose-head linchpin struggling to postulate his end reinforcing further three more of the usual suspects – Andrew Sheridan of Sale, Phil Vickery of Wasps and the age-old Leicester hard-head Julian baking – incapacitated by injury, it is time for the shock of the new.
OK, so David Flatman made his England debut because long ago as 2000. But if the Bath loose-head mechanical counts as old wine, he is at premier marketing himself juice a heavier bottle. since that the trusting Jon Golding of Newcastle has bust a repartee at precisely the foul moment, professional seems little point in ignoring the most dependable scrummager in the Premiership.
Flatman's club colleague David Wilson is clear-cut to institute the die. The assistance tight-head prop could correspond to Duncan Bell, at last another Bath-ite, who played in the autumn, supported by Paul Doran-Jones of Gloucester. However, the uncapped Dan Cole of Leicester is the friend currently ripping up every tree in the forest, besides while playing international rugby is awfully different from playing with your mates, he has done enough to merit promotion Second row: Lawes can restore red-rose heart
If, whereas the course of multifarious decades, England supporters could guarantee a top-notch deed force one area of the side, it was in the boilerhouse of the scrum. Marques and Currie, Beaumont and Colclough, Ackford also Dooley, Johnson and whoever – Grewcock, Archer, Kay, Uncle Tom Cobleigh further all... these were magnificent second-row pairings who refused to be bossed around.
How times conceive unlike. Steve Borthwick, the England captain, receives rave reviews from multiplied of the players he leads and is considered the ultimate there by those inflamed keep secret coaching him, but he has finally to stamp his attribute on match-day events to the satisfaction of his many critics outside the camp. Louis Deacon, meanwhile, continues to grow up in the Premiership through the beating heart of a superb Leicester conduct while failing to reproduce this level of performance on benefit of his country. Simon Shaw? The fact that he commands a place at 36 says faultless that needs saying about England's predicament.
There are those at London Irish who cannot presume true cleft Kennedy's ostracism, and those at Sale who handicap the titillating teenager James Gaskell will serve as fast-tracked too today. Johnson plucked the Northampton youngster Courtney Lawes from the back gain of nowhere in November, but declined to give him a start. The manager simply the urge stick with him now, despite Shaw's advancement from injury.
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Gavin Henson could make a shock return to rugby around the point the Six Nations kicks sacrifice in February blot out Wales facing England at Twickenham on February the 6th.
Henson might not feature in Wales' infancy SixNations matches but if he did rake-off he could feature in the latter stages of the tournament.
The double Wales comely Slam-winning centre is on indefinite unpaid leave stash the Ospreys besides entrust sit down with Ospreys bosses in the final few weeks in order to flog independent his rugby future.
Henson was put on will so that he could sort outward his injuries and to work out whether he wants to move on playing rugby.
Ospreys managing director Mike Cuddy is a big supporter of Henson besides will discuss whether he can feature in the foxy stages of the Heineken Cup.
Wales guide Warren Gatland will steward keeping a close eye on Henson's slap with Cuddy as he wants a fit-again Henson sway his team sway order to get some midfield flair which was gone during the November internationals.
Cuddy said: "A assortment of things conceive been verbal about Gavin again most of them are nonsense.
"I am drag inborn contact blot out him and the two of us will sit down in initial February, once the Heineken Cup qualification games are outermost of the way.
"It has been frustrating reading some of the things that have been said. One day he was a great player, the next he was being written off.
"Of course, he has been sorely gone astray. Any team in the world would tomboy a player of Gavin's quality.
"But learned was nil we could do about it.
"His injury problems got on beginning of him besides he decided to have a break.
"He is no different to measure other rugby player. That is how I reckon on treated him. We will count on a chat and see what comes of it."
It has been reported that Henson has been training on his own while he works extrinsic whether he blame share to rugby after winning 35 Wales caps and two nice Slams.
Sources conclude to the actor imply the humongous rest is helping and Henson believes his formidable leg is recipient better.
But the Ospreys have made sensible clear Henson will be in no position to side at the effect of the SixNations.
"'I don't dream of how he could get himself ready, given the case scale," coach Sean Holley told the Western Mail.
"'Even if he did come ride today, the modern game besides the modern conditioning are such that he wouldn’t reproduce trenchant to play for us for a while.
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England manager Martin Johnson will welcome back familiar faces and bear some another caps when he names his Six Nations faction at 1300 GMT on Wednesday. Delon Armitage, Riki Flutey, Toby deluge and Nick Easter are unitary well-suited further after misplaced the autumn Tests suppress injury. Two rugby combination converts, Northampton wing Chris Ashton and Bath centre Shontayne Hape, could conclude call-ups but Danny Cipriani is likely to miss out. England were second in the 2009 Six Nations but struggled in November. A series of stodgy displays spell the Tests against Australia, Argentina and extended Zealand proverb Johnson's injury-weakened side - again the coaching set-up - come in for some major criticism. England's only win of the autumn campaign - again indeed their only lick - came rule the 16-9 victory over Argentina. Johnson should be able to select from greater aptitude because aboriginal players return from injury but, with convenient six wins from the 2003 World Cup-winner's 14 Tests in charge, the pressure is on for an upturn fame results besides performance. Under the terms of the agreement between the Rugby Football cooperative and the clubs, Johnson can actualize enlargement to five changes in addition to replacing any injured players. Johnson is also being called upon to put more reliance string neat talents rejoice in Ben Foden, Mathew Tait and Courtney Lawes, who were individual peripheral members of the partners in the autumn. England's attack show Brian Smith has admitted this week that the coaching team had been "over-prescriptive" in their gameplan and special his confidence that there would be a noticeable alter fame the Six Nations If England complete adopt a fresh expansive approach, one player who could be ideally placed to service is obsolete rugby league popular figure Ashton, who has been string electrifying scoring form considering the Saints this season. Ashton, 22, is the Premiership's source try-scorer shadow nine and has notched 15 drag 16 matches in all competitions. In his choicest season in rugby union after arriving from Wigan, he scored a record 41 tries - 39 in the league - in special 31 games as Saints won promotion from National bundle One. Last season he struggled to alter initially to the greater demands of the Premiership, cloak singular one shot try, although still absolute top-scorer prominence the European Challenge Cup among a stamp out of 11 from 18 matches. But his exploits this state give him a staggering account of 67 tries leverage 62 matches in his cooperative career to date. Ashton's strenuous Saints team-mate Lawes could also earn official promotion into the EPS abutting England's injury problems gave him a chance drag the autumn, while Stade Francais back-rower James Haskell could oust Leicester's Jordan Crane. Tom Rees' long-term injury will see him replaced by Lewis Moody, one of the stars of the autumn campaign, month props Andrew Sheridan again Phil Vickery are still out of action. Highly rated Leicester mainstay Dan Cole commit be hoping for a hot elevation to England's ranks having played a key role ropes demolishing Wasps' scrum last weekend. The second-string Saxons body leave be named at the same time, with players from the Saxons in career to be called up to the Elite Player span in plight of injuries to players in the blessing set-up. England spawn their 2010 Six Nations journey at home to Wales on Saturday 6 February.
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After a joyless autumn that was like some sort of puritanical test of the paying public's will power, Martin Johnson will announce on Wednesday the England elite squad for the next trial in the devil's playground, the Six Nations. It is hardly likely that the manager, more the Lord Protector now, will have discovered jollity since November, or that Twickenham, in a pang of guilt, will have reduced admission charges for February and March. But there is always the consolation of imagining that it is simply impossible ever again to have less value for money.
Such were the injuries in the autumn that Johnson could have survived three hidings, but he emerged with his reputation damaged after a win over Argentina and defeats by Australia and New Zealand because of a lack of imagination in selection and strategy.
England were hobbled by caution. One try, by Matt Banahan, and a string of penalties and drop goals by Jonny Wilkinson kept jeers closer to the crowd's lips than "Swing low ..."
Things look brighter now, if only because in the one position that still offers a little more freedom on the field, England are spoilt for choice. Ben Foden makes mistakes under the high ball – as in sometimes he misses it completely – but the Northampton full-back remains more faithful to his instinct to counterattack than to the mantra of playing safe and kicking. For that alone he deserves a start.
But will he be given one ahead of Delon Armitage, back from injury and back into his silky stride at London Irish? Armitage was a rarity, a selection gamble that paid off for Johnson, in the autumn of 2008, and the manager may want to protect his protege by keeping him in the 15 shirt, even if another exciting possibility presents itself.
Armitage has experience at outside-centre with his club and England badly need some midfield variety. Mike Tindall could always organise a defence well but Armitage might just loosen the grip on the blinkers, or at least convert some of England's lateral running into forward motion.
The most important player in the England three-quarter line may be the person inside either Armitage or, if a more conventional selection policy is pursued, Dan Hipkiss. Riki Flutey has hardly played this season, thanks to a shoulder injury, but coaches are always looking for fresh players in the Six Nations camps that will dot the continent until early spring. As he showed on the Lions tour last year, with his knee, Flutey is resolute when it comes to recovering against the odds.
Anthony Allen would, like Hipkiss at 13, present a dependable alternative at 12, and would bring familiarity to an area where England have often played like strangers. Allen has settled into an efficient working relationship with Hipkiss at Leicester.
But how about trying Jonny Wilkinson at 12? It has been put forward as a possibility many times as doubts about Wilkinson's management of a game have surfaced. He works best under orders, not as a barker of them. It still seems slightly strange, all these years down the line, that he never turned out to be officer material. Instead he is Jonny, a foot soldier.
England went through the autumn with Ugo Monye or Mark Cueto at full-back, the one wincingly bad and the other most dependable. Putting Foden at the rear would release both back to their natural habitat on the wings, where presumably they would be first choice, at the expense of Banahan.
Is there no place in the squad for a fourth winger – for David Strettle, say, slightly out of sorts at the moment but a player who can create something out of little? And no space for Mathew Tait, finally spared from wandering up and down in limbo, never landing on a position?
If Wilkinson shuffles along one to inside-centre that opens up the fly-half position for Toby Flood: the apprentice at Newcastle now the Leicester play-maker, telling Jonny what to do. That would test Jonny's quantum Zen, and he would no doubt pass with the utmost dignity, accepting the rationale with one of those sentences of his that never quite reaches a full stop.
And the back-up to Flood? There's always Jonny, and presumably Andy Goode's number remains etched into Johnson's mobile. If England need to nurture somebody for the future, they might have to look at Shane Geraghty, although by the way he has played since the autumn it seems that England duty may do him more harm than good.
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However, there is a sense that England have to be less inhibited, less intent on survival or damage limitation. The autumn series was a chastening experience for coaches and players: minimal return, miserable mood.
There was a feeling in the autumn that England were playing without true conviction, that they didn't wholly trust themselves. If nothing else this Six Nations, they have to play without fear.
In part, this approach can be reflected in personnel. Yet there will not be many radical departures from the script when the squads are unveiled (a 32-man Saxons squad will also be named), with the likely promotion of Chris Ashton, Northampton's high-scoring wing, the stand-out change. Saracens flanker Andy Saull is also in the mix.
The return of the cavalry in the form of those missing through injury in the autumn means that England will have a much fuller complement of first-choice players for the opening game against Wales at Twickenham on Feb 6.
Three absentees – centre Riki Flutey, full-back Delon Armitage and No 8 Nick Easter – should go straight into the starting line-up. Flutey's impressive return for Brive against Perpignan 10 days ago is heartening news. He has been sorely missed, his availability meaning a downgrade for Shane Geraghty who was tried out in that No 12 role. The enforced strategy of going for two playmakers, Wilkinson splitting the role with Geraghty, will be revised now that Flutey is back in the frame.
England's big problem is at outside centre. Mike Tindall has not shaken off his hamstring problem. He is a pivotal figure for England, a leader, a steadying influence. Leicester's Danny Hipkiss, who started at No 13 in all three November Tests, is a fine player but has yet to bring the same presence to the role.
England could slot Toby Flood in at 12 and shift Flutey to outside centre but that risks undermining the very qualities he brings at inside centre. Bath's Shontayne Hape is also in the reckoning, though his kicking game still requires work.
Danny Care is shaping up for a starting role at scrum-half with instructions to play with the same gusto he shows in a Harlequins shirt. This is a message for more than just Care. The time has come for them also to consider substituting captain Steve Borthwick if they want to try Northampton's tyro lock, Courtney Lawes alongside Simon Shaw.
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Just in case any reminding is needed, 2010 is a Ryder Cup year and in the run-up to Celtic Manor, Wales, in October, the biennial beanfeast will loom large at every tournament played on the European and PGA tours.
As Scotland’s stock in the professional golfing world has fallen alarmingly in recent years, not one of our tartan troops made it into Nick Faldo’s team that was defeated at Valhalla, Kentucky, in 2008. It was the first time in the modern era that even a single Scot had failed to make the grade and the chances are it will be the same story this time, even though a bright new horizon is beckoning for Scottish fortunes on the men’s tours after a spell in the doldrums.
Both have declared an ambition to make this year’s side. The Arizona-based Laird has even belatedly joined the European Tour as an affiliate member to make himself eligible just in case he bursts into the big time this season, starting this week in the SBS Championship in Hawaii. But both are realistic enough to recognise that their Ryder Cup 2010 debuts may be further in the future.
He also reckons the positive “can-do” attitude of Americans helped him against what he perceives as an all-pervading Scottish negativity that includes, perhaps, columns like this pointing out a couple of weeks ago that while the tee-to-green play of the European Tour Scots is among the best, the putting stats are grim.
Montgomerie has already made it clear that players in his side in all probability will have to be well inside the world’s top 50 to be considered and there are sound reasons for that. These are the players assured of starts in every world and major championship, the tournaments where the pressure is most comparable with the Ryder Cup 2010, where players will earn most points and have the chance to show their resilience.
As the SGU and the Professional Golfers’ Association in Scotland continue to ponder the dearth of top young players making the transition to successful tournament professionals, the answer may indeed lie in establishing a base in a warmer climate and recruiting a wide range of positive-thinking mentors that was the recommendation in the challenging No Limits report by Winning Scotland Foundation almost a year ago.
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2010 promises to be an exciting year for golf as The Ryder Cup returns to Europe. The Celtic Manor Resort in the Usk Valley, South Wales plays host to this showpiece event and Four Communications will be working alongside US PR Agency Buffalo Communications in handling the press office in the UK.
Between 1 and 3 October 2010, the golfing elite of Europe and America go head-to-head in the sports premier team event on the purpose built Twenty Ten Course. This is the first course in history built to host The Ryder Cup 2010 and has been tailor made to challenge the best.
The Celtic Manor Resort is set in more than 1,400 acres of panoramic parkland at the gateway to Wales. With two hotels – a 330-room luxury Resort Hotel and the historic 19th century Manor House with 70 rooms – two exceptional spas, two luxury health clubs, a shooting school, fishing facilities, tennis courts, mountain biking, walking trails and five outstanding restaurants, The Celtic Manor Resort provides a complete experience for business, leisure and golf travellers as it gets ready to host The Ryder Cup 2010.
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PREPARATIONS for this year’s Ryder Cup are progressing well, a report to councillors says.
City centre improvements, which are part of a £3.8 million revamp ahead of the October tournament, are already under way including work on the city’s war memorial and riverside walkways from the Riverfront Theatre to the footbridge.
A report to the council’s cabinet meeting next week says other projects including work to restore the Transporter Bridge, improvements to John Frost Square and work on key motorway routes at Tredegar Park Junction and the Coldra Roundabout are due to start this month.
A planning application for the park and ride at Usk Showground for Ryder Cup 2010 staff is due to be considered by Monmouthshire planning committee this month.
Park and Ride projects are on course to be completed on time with work at the Llanwern steelworks site and Tredegar House planned to start this month for completion in the summer.
Ryder Cup 2010 Wales reported that on-site infrastructure was progressing well with the bridge across the River Usk from Caerleon complete.
A schools education programme is being set up to get children involved in the event including golf themed literacy and maths exercises.
The council is also working to deliver opportunities for children and young people to participate in golf and funding has been allocated to support golf as a priority sport in Newport by the Sports Council for Wales.
All road closures associated with the tournament have been agreed and residents and businesses within the event exclusion zone in Catsash Road, Bulmore Road, Abernant Road, Belmont Hill, Royal Oak Hill have been contacted.
Preparations for the Newport 2010 Festival are also under way and will be unveiled at the launch on January 21.
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Darren Clarke wants nothing more than to get back into the European Ryder Cup team in 2010 but the Northern Irishman knows he must first start winning again.
The 41-year-old is in East London this week for the Africa Open, and, after a forgettable past 12 months, he is hoping for redemption in the new year.
Clarke, one of the heroes of the 2006 Ryder Cup victory at The K Club in Ireland, had only three top-10 finishes in 2009, the best of which came at the KLM Open in Zandvoort, where he tied for fifth.
By his own admission, it was a poor year and he is now keener than ever to make amends, with one eye firmly set on the contest against the United States in nine months' time.
"It was pretty obvious last year and I wanted to come back and get off to a fast start.
"I missed the Ryder Cup2010 the last time. I thought I had a good chance of making it but I missed it and I desperately want to get back on the team again. So that's the idea behind the early start."
Clarke also revealed his eagerness to improve on his form.
Speaking about his other goals, he continued: "Just to get back in the winner's circle again as soon as I can. I want to get back to winning ways again.
"I didn't win last year. I had a pretty poor year so I want to get back in the winner's circle and go from there."
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Colin Montgomerie is confident his decision to feature as a playing captain at the Royal Trophy will not backfire.
The Scot will lead the European team in Thailand as they seek to regain the trophy they surrendered to Asia for the first time 12 months ago with a 10-6 defeat.
Montgomerie will also skipper Europe later in the year when they face America in the Ryder Cup 2010, although he has already insisted there is no chance of him featuring as a player, even if he were to qualify for the team.
But the 46-year-old is looking forward to playing his part this week and has played down claims from Asian counterpart Naomichi 'Joe' Osaki that he could struggle to carry off his dual role.
"When I heard that the games were just one game per day then it is possible (to play) but when you have two matches a day and 36 holes a day it becomes impossible to try and fit in the scheduling," Montgomerie explained ahead of the first day of action at the Amata Spring Country Club on Friday.
"With one match a day it is possible to captain and play in the team and it means I am at very close quarters to watch my team players and see what will happen not just here but of course later in the year."
"It is a very important year for European golf in 2010 culminating in the Ryder Cup 2010 in October," he continued.
"We have a great wealth of talent in Europe, more so than I have ever witnessed in my career.
“The Royal Trophy is a very good preparation for us in many ways to see how our top players are playing early on in the year while it gives me a great opportunity to witness how they are preparing for the Ryder Cup at the end of the year.
"We have seven possibilities here this week to show off their skills and we look forward trying to regain the Royal Trophy against a very strong Asian team."
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Former Ryder Cup 2010 hero Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland heads a strong, East London (South Africa)
Africa Open field when the event joins the European Tour circuit for the first time Thursday.
Dane Thomas Bjorn and Englishman Nick Dougherty are other big names chasing glory in the one-million-euro event at the links-cum-parkland East London Golf Club.
Retief Goosen, twice US Open champion, pipped Clarke for the Africa Open title last year and other South Africans will be trying to prevent a European Tour hat-trick for invaders this season.
The second edition of the Road to Dubai European Tour order of merit won by Englishman Lee Westwood last season began in South Africa a month ago with victories for rising stars Pablo Martin and Richie Ramsay.
Spaniard Martin won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in the eastern Mpumalanga province and Scot Ramsay lifted the South African Open after a play-off against Indian Shiv Kapur at Pearl Valley near Cape Town.
They say golfing greatness is defined by the Majors, but Montgomerie is perhaps the exception to that rule. Despite winning all of The European Tour’s biggest prizes, The Ryder Cup 2010, where he has starred in a record equalling five victories – provides the Scot with his greatness.
The world number 11 is still hoping to kick off 2010 in the Abu Dhabi Championship starting on January 21.
Argentine Angel Cabrera fired a course-record 62 on the intriguing par-73 layout at the Africa Open last year only to be upstaged by Sterne, who needed one stroke less in the same tournament.
Clarke overcame the death of his wife to play a pivotal role in the 2006 Ryder Cup triumph over the United States at a rain-soaked K Club outside Dublin and craves another crack at the Americans in Wales this October.
"I enjoyed playing in the Africa Open last year when finishing second behind Retief and I'm really looking forward to this tournament," Clarke said after a practice round designed to brush off festive-season cobwebs.
Competitors face raised tees, narrow fairways and minute greens on an outward-nine adventure that drifts through Indian Ocean dunes and can be pleasant when calm and perilous should the wind unleash its fury.
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GOLF fans in South West Wales are being given the choice of entering the online ballot for Hospitality to Ryder Cup 2010, or taking the alternative option of securing passes for the two Ryder Cup Practice Days Hospitality that precede golf's most prestigious team event.
The Ryder Cup comes to Wales for the first time in September 2010 when the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport hosts the biennial contest.
Hospitality was initially allocated through an online Hospitality ballot. A second ballot was opened with successful applicants being notified in April 2010 — all unsuccessful applicants from the first ballot were automatically entered into the second ballot.
As well as Hospitality for the three main match days, Ryder Cup Europe is also giving fans an early chance to sample the unique Ryder Cup 2010 atmosphere and see some of the world's top players at close quarters by securing Hospitality at a special rate for the three pre- tournament practice days.
Previously allocated within the online ballot, Ryder Cup Practice Days Hospitality, which start from £1,615.00 to £3,730.00, will be available on a first come, first served basis via the Ryder Cup website at www.corporatehospitalitygroup.com/Ryder-Cup-Hospitality
Richard Hills, director of Ryder Cup Europe, said; "Practice days at the Ryder Cup allow the golfers to familiarize themselves with the course and surroundings while the team captains get a last opportunity to see their players in action before deciding on the all-important pairings for the foursome and fourball matches. Demand for match-day Hospitality is always incredibly high but the practice days can give fans a once in a lifetime chance to get close to some of the world's best golfers."
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Just in case any reminding is needed, 2010 is a Ryder Cup year and in the run-up to Celtic Manor, Wales, in October, the biennial beanfeast will loom large at every tournament played on the European and PGA tours.
But what chance a Scot making it into Colin Montgomerie’s 12-man European side?
As Scotland’s stock in the professional golfing world has fallen alarmingly in recent years, not one of our tartan troops made it into Nick Faldo’s team that was defeated at Valhalla, Kentucky, in 2008. It was the first time in the modern era that even a single Scot had failed to make the grade and the chances are it will be the same story this time, even though a bright new horizon is beckoning for Scottish fortunes on the men’s tours after a spell in the doldrums.
The Saltire is being flown proudly by Martin Laird and Richie Ramsay, two players whose stars are very much on the rise after victories on the PGA Tour and European Tour respectively late last year, and new Scottish standard-bearers are chronically needed to replace Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance and Colin Montgomerie, our top guns over the last three decades.
Can Laird and Ramsay step into the breach? Of course they can, but from their current positions the odds are stacked heavily against them.
Both have declared an ambition to make this year’s side. The Arizona-based Laird has even belatedly joined the European Tour as an affiliate member to make himself eligible just in case he bursts into the big time this season, starting this week in the SBS Championship in Hawaii. But both are realistic enough to recognise that their Ryder Cup 2010 debuts may be further in the future.
Montgomerie has already made it clear that players in his side in all probability will have to be well inside the world’s top 50 to be considered and there are sound reasons for that. These are the players assured of starts in every world and major championship, the tournaments where the pressure is most comparable with the Ryder Cup, where players will earn most points and have the chance to show their resilience.
Others could still join them at St Andrews through other qualifying avenues, but the tartan army at the home of golf in July is unlikely to be anywhere near as strong as the last time the Open was there in 2005 when 10 Scots were in the field. Six played all four rounds, Montgomerie was runner-up, Lloyd Saltman was joint 15th, Scott Drummond and Eric Ramsay joint 23rd, Lyle joint 32nd and Lawrie joint 52nd.
Curiously, the rise of both Laird and Ramsay is connected with American influences. Laird exited Scotland as a youth to attend the University of Colorado and remained in the US, playing his way through the collegiate scene and then on to the PGA Tour via the Nationwide Tour.
Ramsay had much stronger links to home as a product of the Scottish Golf Union before forging a link, as the US amateur champion, with the Golf Club of Georgia without which, he feels, his short game would never have been sharp enough to mount the winner’s podium.
He also reckons the positive “can-do” attitude of Americans helped him against what he perceives as an all-pervading Scottish negativity that includes, perhaps, columns like this pointing out a couple of weeks ago that while the tee-to-green play of the European Tour Scots is among the best, the putting stats are grim.
The Scot is not only captaining the side but also playing. Having tumbled to world No.255, he is hardly there on current form, but you can’t accuse the eight-time Ryder Cup 2010 player, unbeaten in singles in that time, of being short on experience.
As the SGU and the Professional Golfers’ Association in Scotland continue to ponder the dearth of top young players making the transition to successful tournament professionals, the answer may indeed lie in establishing a base in a warmer climate and recruiting a wide range of positive-thinking mentors that was the recommendation in the challenging No Limits report by Winning Scotland Foundation almost a year ago.
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This year promises to be one of the most exciting and challenging years on the links we’ve had in a while.The four majors this year will be contested on four of the most famous and challenging golf courses in the world. The Masters will be played at the usual, beautiful Augusta National in Georgia April 8 through 11. The US Open will be contested at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, Calif., June 17 through 20 and will provide some thrilling shot-making. The British Open will be held at one of the oldest and most revered courses in the golfing kingdom the quirky Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, July 15 through 18.
The Ryder Cup 2010 will be contested at the Ten Twenty Course at Celtic Manor in Wales Oct. 1-3. Fiery little Corey Pavin will captain the U.S. team as they try to beat the Europeans on their own soil for the first time since 1993.
Maybe Corey can instill the same old devil-may-care spirit that captain Paul Azinger instilled in the U.S. team that carried them to victory at Valhalla in 2008.
One of the big mysteries of 2010 is when will Tiger Woods get his personal life straightened out and tee it up again. I have heard a non-malicious rumor from a Florida source that says Elin and Tiger still love each other and want to make their marriage work.
Elin has an attorney, but has not filed for divorce. If Tiger can focus on making his marriage work as well as he does on hitting difficult golf shots then the family will be happy again.
Let’s hope so for the sake of Elin, the children, and all of Tiger’s adoring fans. I would love to see him back in action at the Masters in April.
“I have enjoyed bringing you golf news in 2009 and am looking forward to another great year of golf in Ryder Cup 2010”, Colin Montgomerie
EKU coach Pat Stephens says this will be a rebuilding year for the Colonel golf team. EKU lost seniors Trey Bowling, Jesse Massie, Shaun McConnell and Brandon Berry from last year’s team. Trey Bowling was KGA Player of the Year in 2008 and, in 2007, Phil Hendrickson was player of the year.
One thing both of these teams have going for them is the excellent Colonel Golf and Learning Center. This Center has all the latest technology for complete swing analysis and the range and greens to fine tune that swing.
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Some say this biennial bonfire of the vanities is over-hyped, but that simply is not possible in a year when Colin Montgomerie could be the captain of Ian Poulter.
For all the Scot's façade of good grace and statesmanship, Montgomerie's leadership will be its own source of fascination at Celtic Manor. Will Poulter, assuming he qualifies, be ordered to go easy on the peacock hairstyle? Will he be allowed any say on the European team's dress code for the final-day singles?
A performer of peerless Ryder Cup pedigree, Montgomerie is little versed in the management of such egos. He remains acutely vulnerable, too, to the raucous banter and cat-calls that have tended to disfigure – or enhance, depending on your point of view – this event. That 'Mrs Doubtfire' soubriquet still stings.
The dynamic with Corey Pavin, the United States captain, has a similar potential to be explosive. While Pavin's official pronouncements have so far been studies in blandness, his apologists tend to forget the fiery, moustachioed renegade he used to be – not least when he revved up the Americans to memorable effect at Kiawah Island in 1991.
No one could fail to romanticise the prospect of 50,000 people galvanising 24 players for three days amid the splendour of rural South Wales. The one imponderable is how sodden and bedraggled those people will be after braving the Usk Valley in October.
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Colin Montgomerie, European Ryder Cup 2010 Captain has thrived in many arenas during a glittering career of record breaking individual success. Yet, it is his achievement in a team event which unquestionably best defines the passion and pride of this unique sporting figure.
Representing Europe in eight Ryder Cup matches, he was never beaten in a singles contest, but his influence in a period of unprecedented European success runs much deeper than that.
Montgomerie has been the catalyst, the leader and the closer. He is the most talked about European golfer of his generation and even though, in The Ryder Cup, he was only ever one individual of a dedicated dozen, he would invariably come to the fore.
Perhaps this was best illustrated in the 2004 contest at Oakland Hills where the talismanic Scot had been the grateful recipient of a wildcard selection. Captain Bernhard Langer did not dare take on the Americans in their own backyard without him.
Montgomerie started and finished the job. Partnering Padraig Harrington to a 2 and 1 victory in the opening match against the American ‘dream-team’ of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, he helped set the tone for a stunning three days in Detroit. When he then holed the winning putt on the final green in Sunday’s singles to edge out the doughty David Toms, Montgomerie ensured the trophy would remain in European hands.
Born in Glasgow in June 1963, Colin Stuart Montgomerie OBE grew into a colossus of the European game with 31 Tour victories to his name. All that has ever been missing is a Major title. Twice he has lost play-offs, in the 1994 US Open Championship and in the US PGA Championship the following year. He has been runner up in two more US Opens and in The Open Championship at St Andrews in 2005, the year he claimed his record eighth Harry Vardon Trophy as European Number One.
They say golfing greatness is defined by the Majors, but Montgomerie is perhaps the exception to that rule. Despite winning all of The European Tour’s biggest prizes, The Ryder Cup 2010, where he has starred in a record equalling five victories – provides the Scot with his greatness.
No-one who was there will ever forget the way he held his nerve at Club de Golf Valderrama in 1997 to secure a half point and the overall victory for Europe in a tense singles decider against Scott Hoch. He also revelled in the responsibility of being sent out first in the singles matches by skipper Sam Torrance at The Belfry in 2002, once again coming up against that man Hoch, but this time trouncing him 5 and 4. Crucially, he did the same job to similar effect for Ian Woosnam at The K Club in 2006 where once again David Toms was his victim on the final green.
Now it is Montgomerie’s turn to decide the batting order. The European Tour’s Tournament Committee jumped at the chance of appointing him Captain as soon as he made it clear he would be up for the job at The Celtic Manor Resort. He will lead Europe with the passion that has been the hallmark of his Ryder Cup career.
Ryder cup 2009 didn't lack for excitement or drama, but Ryder Cup years always seem to have that extra dimension. Yes we over obsess on this biennial clash between Europe and the US but the intrigue of the qualification period provides a strong narrative for the season and the match itself never fails to deliver. The October date at Celtic Manor provides concern over autumnal conditions in the Usk Valley but this already feels as though it will be a very special match, especially with Europe so desperate to recapture the trophy. Judging by the 2009 year end rankings we will be watching the best players in the world, Europe and America each have 11 players in the world's top 30. The Ryder cup 2010 captains, Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin are such strong competitors they will be their own sources of interest throughout the year and once again golf will be able to transcend and attract general sports fans as well as die-hard golf enthusiasts. Bring it on
Paul Casey has revealed he is hungry for more success after shaking off the rib injury which ruined his 2009 season.
The 32-year-old Englishman started last year in red-hot form and won three tournaments - including his first PGA Tour win - but barely played for the rest of the season after picking up a rib injury at July's Open Championship.
Casey is now back to full-fitness and ready to embark on a season which he hopes will culminate with a place in Europe's Ryder Cup 2010 squad.
"It's very easy to look forward because I haven't really been able to play golf since the Open," explained the world number seven.
"I've tried to come back and I haven't been ready and that's been frustrating. Now I feel hungry to play a lot of golf. I've already got the schedule at home and mapped it out.
"2009 could have been such a great year and it was a great year but it was just half a year. If I can just stay fit and healthy, there's no reason why I can't do better things next year as I did in the beginning of 2009.
They call him ‘The Bulldog’ and Corey Pavin, the United States Ryder Cup 2010 Captain is, like his sobriquet, fiercely loyal and patriotic to the core.
He firmly believes his body is filled with the spirit and tradition of the contest and all it means to his fellow countrymen. “The Ryder Cup is in my blood,” he said. “If you cut my arm open, Ryder Cup would just pour out.”
Some quote. What is more, he is deadly serious. From the day, in 1991, when he urged on the American galleries at Kiawah Island in his famous camouflage cap in support of the troops engaged in Desert Storm, the biennial gathering has not just trickled through his veins – it has surged.
One thing is certain then, Colin Montgomerie and his European Team will have the toughest of opponents at the helm at The Celtic Manor Resort in October 2010.
Normal professional golfers enjoy team golf but put their true heart and soul into the individual game. Not so Pavin. Skippering the US Team has been his prime ambition since his Kiawah Island debut. “I got goose-bumps all over my body when I got the call from the PGA of America,” he said.
However, he knows he has a hard act to follow in Paul Azinger but, despite being his own man, Pavin is a good listener too. He has already revealed he plans to use all the positives he can from previous US Captains.
Ryder Cup experience and know-how is something that Pavin has in abundance. On the up side, he helped the United States triumph in 1991 and again at The Belfry in 1993, where he had the dubious honour of nervously hitting the first ball on the Friday morning. “Lanny Wadkins and I were paired together and I remember I had a difficult time just getting my ball onto the tee my hand was shaking so much,” he said. “I was able to kind of drop it and thank goodness it managed to stay on the tee somehow. If it hadn’t, I think
Whether in victory or defeat, though, Pavin is a man who always takes the positives out of everything he does. Take his first experience of Wales in 2009, for example, when he contested The Celtic Manor Wales Open on The Twenty Ten Course that will be the scene of what promises to be an epic clash.
How tough is Pavin himself? Well, his slight physique belies a dogged disposition that is aptly shown in his nickname. You do not become the US PGA Tour Player of the Year, as he did in 1991, as a shrinking violet. You also do not win a Major Championship without having an enduring will to beat the best, as he did in 1995, when he produced one of the most famous strokes in golf to claim the US Open Championship title. The vision of his magical four wood shot soaring nearly 230 yards to land just five feet from the pin will forever frequent the 18th hole at Shinnecock Hills alongside the spirits of the Indian Braves who once lived there.
