Struggling Lee Westwood has offered European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley a Gleneagles option in declaring he does not want to play in the Ryder Cup unless he begins to show form over the coming few weeks.
The eight-time Ryder Cup star is one of the biggest concerns and currently lying well down in 16th position on the points table.
Given Westwood’s now based himself on the PGA Tour he has just this week’s WGC – Bridgestone Invitational and next week’s PGA Championship to break into the top nine automatic qualifiers.
And given Westwood’s missed the cut in his past three events, including last fortnight’s Open Championship, since finishing sixth in the Players Championship, he’s got his work cut out to break inside the Gleneagles leading nine.
Victorious European Captain Jose Maria Olazabal plants a kiss on England’s Lee Westwood after winning 2012 Ryder Cup. (Photo – Colum Watts/www.golffile.ie)
“I don’t want to play in the Ryder Cup unless I’m playing well and I want to show I’m playing well over these next few weeks,” he said.
“Although I’m coming in here off some missed cuts I’m actually hitting it well and hitting the ball out of the middle of the club-face again.
“I’ve been working with Mike Walker and feel like it’s getting back to where it should be. I’m very hopeful of a good week.
“But then I’ve been involved in a number of qualifying races for the Ryder Cup and learned over the years no to concentrate on the points or whatever but just on the golf, because that’s what will get you in.
“So that doesn’t change this year.”
Also well outside of Ryder Cup qualifying is Tiger Woods, the defending Bridgestone Invitational champion, who will be looking to capture the tournament for a ninth occasion.
Woods had last week off since finishing near last place in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
But he returns to competition for just a third event since back surgery lying in 70th place on the USA Ryder Cup standings and 2,644,850 points adrift of the ninth place Zach Johnson.
And with just two events remaining for the 38-year old to qualify for the USA Ryder Cup team, Woods was adamant how he could relieve Tom Watson from having to use one of his ‘wildcard’ picks on the seven-time Stars and Stripes star.
“I would like to win these two events and not have to worry about a thing,” said Woods.
“That’s the plan, that’s the mind-set and that’s the focus, and we’ll see how the balls drop these next two weeks.
“Other than that, I am so far out of qualifying automatically at this stage but hopefully I can qualify for the Play Offs and then play well for those four weeks.”
