EUROPE captain Nick Faldo tonight handed Ryder Cup wild

cards to Ian Poulter and Paul Casey.

As a result Colin Montgomerie misses out on the match which

could have seen him take over from Faldo as the event's record

points-scorer.

Darren Clarke also misses out, despite his victory in

Holland a week ago which made he and Casey the two favourites

to be picked.

Regarding the selection of Casey, Faldo explained: ``I've

been watching Paul play and he has been playing absolutely the

best through the summer.

"I was waiting for the putting to turn around. That has been

very important.

"He has an extremely good record in the Ryder Cup and, going

back, the Walker Cup. I feel very good about those two

picks."

Poulter chose not to fly back from America for the last

qualifying event, this weekend's Johnnie Walker Championship at

Gleneagles.

A third-place finish at Gleneagles would have taken Poulter

into the team by right.

Clarke was hoping for another wild card, having benefited in

that manner two years ago.

Ian Woosnam chose him then just three weeks after the

Ulsterman's wife Heather had lost her fight with breast

cancer.

Three weeks later, amid emotional scenes at The K Club,

Clarke won all his three matches in Europe's record-equalling

nine-point victory.

Casey won his second cap there and, partnering David Howell

in the second-day foursomes, became the first player to win a

Ryder Cup match with a hole-in-one.

Of all the leading candidates for selection, he and Clarke

were the two who showed Faldo the best recent form, with

Poulter having failed to follow up his bid for Open glory at

Royal Birkdale six weeks ago.

Brilliantly though he played there, it was only his second

top-10 finish of the whole year. Casey has had four in his last

seven starts.

Europe will go for an unprecedented fourth successive

victory over the Americans at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky,

on September 19-21.

Europe know only eight of the 12 Americans they will

face.

Paul Azinger names four wild cards on Tuesday, but unlike

the last five US captains he has no Tiger Woods in his line-up,

and while Faldo had the headache of who to leave out, Azinger

has had no star names crying out for a pick.

Steve Stricker, who just missed out on automatic selection,

appears an obvious first choice and Scott Verplank would be a

safe second pick, but if he wants to go with youth then Hunter

Mahan, DJ Trahan and Brandt Snedeker are stand-out

candidates.

The United States have lost five of the last six matches and

in the other – in Boston nine years ago – they needed the

biggest comeback in cup history and won only after the shameful

storming of the 17th green before Olazabal could attempt his

putt to keep the match alive.

Montgomerie was heckled that week like no other golfer

before or since, but still lost only one of his five games and

come 2002, 2004 and 2006 played a starring role.

Europe's talisman has not been able to convince Faldo,

though, that he deserved a ninth cap.

He did finish second in the French Open at the end of June,

but the 45-year-old has tailed off badly since then and, for

all he has done in the past and for all the support he got from

Harrington and others, it was Faldo's opinion that

mattered.

After last year's Seve Trophy, Faldo – not in private, but

in conversation with a reporter – said: "Monty's a tough one.

He was the only one whose emotions I had to deal with.

"He only came to two of the five team meetings, so that was

disappointing. Then he had to be teased out on to the 18th

green to support his team – the bottom line was he hadn't won a

point."

Even back then Montgomerie was asked how he would feel if he

missed out on next month's match.

"I wouldn't lose any sleep over it – I'd just make sure I

qualified in 2010," he said. He hoped it would not come to

that, but it has.