The rehabilitation of Nick Faldo advanced a further, significant step yesterday when he was called into next week's 12-man field at the Cisco World Matchplay championship at Wentworth. Winner in 1989 and 1992, Faldo was beaten on the 36th by Corey Pavin in the final of 1993.
An equally surprising appearance in the Dunhill Cup a week later could mark a change of fortune for another former British Open champion. John Daly, who was in the triumphant US team seven years ago, will be in this year's line-up with Tom Lehman and a yet-to-be-named third player.
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke, who remains 11th in the world rankings, has opted out of this week's German Masters in Cologne. Padraig Harrington, who finished third behind Lee Westwood in the Belgian Open last weekend, will head the Irish challenge, which also includes Ronan Rafferty, Paul McGinley, Des Smyth and Eamonn Darcy.
Harrington watched Sonia O'Sullivan's silver medal run in his Belgian hotel room yesterday morning, before heading for Cologne. "I've been seeing a lot of the Olympics and I find myself feeling sorry for the athletes who just miss out on medals," he said. "They have four years to wait for another chance, whereas for professional golfers, there's always next week's tournament."
Faldo, whose last official tournament victory was in the Los Angeles Open in March 1997, was in danger of dropping out of the world's top-200 earlier this season. Now, he joins a line-up which, for the first time in the event's 36-year history, has only one American who, incidentally, has yet to win on his native tour.
But Bob May won many admirers for a wonderful performance in the USPGA Championship at Valhalla last month, before losing to Tiger Woods in a four-hole aggregate play-off. Europe's seven representatives include Clarke and Harrington. Clarke's presence in the Wentworth field and his absence from Germany is explained by the fact that his wife, Heather, is expecting their second child later this week, somewhat earlier than originally thought.
With Faldo, the Irish pair join defending champion Colin Montgomerie, current Order of Merit leader Westwood and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn. The remaining European is Spain's Sergio Garcia, who made a controversial departure in the first round last year, when he almost hit the match referee with his shoe after taking it off and kicking it in disgust.
The line-up is completed by US Masters champion and 1997 winner Vijay Singh; world number two and three-time winner Ernie Els; South African Retief Goosen and 20-year-old Australian rookie Adam Scott. Obviously Clarke is aiming at a major matchplay double, having won the Andersen Consulting World Championship at La Costa last February.
Faldo, who is 32nd in the Order of Merit with earnings of £200,711 from eight events in Europe this season, is guaranteed a minimum £50,000 as a firstround loser at Wentworth. Now back up to 113th in the world rankings, he last appeared in the matchplay in 1994.
Els, Westwood, Montgomerie and Singh - respectively ranked second, fourth, sixth and ninth in the world - are almost certain to be the four seeds who receive byes into Friday's quarter-finals. The field, in order of world ranking, is: E Els (Rsa), L Westwood (Eng), C Montgomerie (Sco), V Singh (Fij), D Clarke (N Ire), S Garcia (Spa), T Bjorn (Den), B May (USA), P Harrington (Ire), R Goosen (Rsa), N Faldo (Eng), A Scott (Aus).
Meanwhile, Daly, who finished down the field in the Texas Open last weekend and is without a tournament victory since his triumph on the Old Course in 1995, played with Fred Couples and the late Payne Stewart in the winning Dunhill Cup side of 1993. But the 34-year-old's hopes of returning to form at the Open at St Andrews last July were scuppered when he missed the cut.
He also made an early exit from the USPGA Championship last month, after a second-round 82 at Valhalla.
Defending champions Spain will be without Garcia, who came from behind to gain a shock win over Clarke on the third day of group matches last year. Miguel Angel Martin will replace him as a partner for Jose-Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
The line-ups for the four home nations had already been announced - Harrington, McGinley and Des Smyth represent Ireland; Jamie Spence, Brian Davis and Roger Chapman play for England; Montgomerie, Gary Orr and Andrew Coltart for Scotland and Ian Woosnam, Phillip Price and David Park for Wales.
Els, Goosen and David Frost, the trio who captured the title for South Africa in 1997 and 1998, are together again. Bernhard Langer, an infrequent competitor in the event, will lead the German challenge and Nick Price will make his eighth appearance for Zimbabwe.
Sixteen countries will be competing for a prize fund of £1 million, of which the winning trio will receive £100,000 each.
Other finalised teams are: Argentina - Angel Cabrera, Jose Coceres, Eduardo Romero; Australia - Stephen Leaney, Nick O'Hern, Peter O'Malley; China - WenChong Liang, Xiang-Bing Wu, Lian-Wei Zhang; France - Thomas Levet, Jean Francois Remesy, Jean Van de Velde; Germany - Thomas Gogele, Langer, Sven Struver; Japan - Isao Aoki, Tetsu Nishikawa, Tsusaka Watanabe; New Zealand - Michael Campbell, Greg Turner, Grant Waite; Sweden - Mathias Gronberg, PerUlrik Johansson, Patrik Sjoland; Zimbabwe - Tony Johnstone, Mark McNulty, Nick Price.
