... worried about his team getting hammered by Tiger and company.
This week will see the inaugural staging in France of the Vivendi Trophy with Seve Ballesteros - a team contest featuring squads from Great Britain and Ireland and from Europe. By most indications, Ballesteros, who is receiving treatment for his brain tumour, will not be attending. Nor will the likes of Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose or Ian Poulter, who are all injured, otherwise engaged, unavailable or (in the case of our national treasure, Poulter) having pool parties.
Despite all of these absences, expect a lot of Ryder Cup guff to be talked, mainly because Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie will be on hand to observe this utterly meaningless contest ... I mean, fierce competition.
As someone who will be talking a fair amount of Ryder Cup guff over the next year or so, I suppose I shouldn't be too sniffy . But I think it would it be fair to say that such discussions may be at least a little premature. How premature? Well here is the current Ryder Cup points list.
So to sum up, if the Ryder Cup qualification process ended this week, among those teeing it up for Monty's team would be - fanfare please - Bradley Dredge, Ross McGowan and Benn Barham.
No offence to those three - all good players, obviously - but they will not be at Celtic Manor next year, at least not in the Europe team room. Guff-wise, I rest my case.
