Golf:Paul McGinley and Thomas Björn have announced their respective teams for the upcoming Seve Trophy, with 12 players from the world's top 50 set to compete at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche Golf Club in Paris from September 24th-27th.
World number five Henrik Stenson is the highest ranked player in the field and will head Björn’s Continental Europe team against McGinley’s Britain and Ireland side, which includes two of the brightest young prospects on The European Tour in Rory McIlroy and Chris Wood.
McIlroy will be joined by fellow Irishman Graeme McDowell plus eight Englishmen; Nick Dougherty, Simon Dyson, Ross Fisher, Robert Rock, Anthony Wall, Steve Webster, Oliver Wilson and Wood.
“I am going to be captaining some of the most exciting talent in world golf at the moment and that is a challenge in itself,” said McGinley. “I am looking forward immensely to working with quality players and see where we go. I am very much going into it with an open mind because I have things to learn and I’ve never done it before.”
McGinley’s side suffered a number of withdrawals. Pádraig Harrington and Luke Donald are the only two who have qualified for the Tour Championship in Atlanta, but Paul Casey is still recovering from injury and Lee Westwood has confirmed he wants the week off. Ian Poulter and Justin Rose are believed to have followed suit.
Joining Swede Stenson in the Continental Europe camp will be compatriots Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson, Danish trio Anders Hansen, Søren Hansen and Søren Kjeldsen and Spaniards Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Alvaro Quiros, while there is a debut for Italian Francesco Molinari.
“I have a good bunch of guys and I can sense that they want to go to Paris next week and do a good job,” said Björn. “It’s important everyone on the team stands together and gets right behind each other with heart and soul.
“When you get ten guys together they will not all necessarily be playing great golf, but it’s a question of getting everybody believing and dreaming the same dream and I am confident we can do that.”
In total six of Europe’s 2008 Ryder Cup Team will be part of the contest; Søren Hansen, Jiménez, Karlsson, McDowell, Stenson and Wilson.
The Seve Trophy pits Europe’s leading golfers in a team competition format similar to the Ryder Cup. Ten players represent Britain and Ireland and Continental Europe over four days.
There will be five fourballs on both Thursday and Friday, four greensomes on Saturday morning, four foursomes on Saturday afternoon and ten singles matches on Sunday.
In total 28 points are available with 14½ points required to win. In 2007 Continental Europe led 9½-8½ going into the last day, but Britain and Ireland won the singles 8-2 for a decisive 16½-11½ victory.
Continental Europe won the inaugural event in 2000 but Britain and Ireland have won each of the four subsequent matches in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Teams:
Britain and Ireland:Rory McIlroy, Ross Fisher, Oliver Wilson, Graeme McDowell, Chris Wood, Simon Dyson, Robert Rock, Nick Dougherty, Steve Webster, Anthony Wall.
Continental Europe:Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Soren Kjeldsen, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Soren Hansen, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Alvaro Quiros, Peter Hanson, Anders Hansen, Francesco Molinari.
