Golf: Kaymer victory increases pressure

Jun 24 2008 by Richard Williamson, Liverpool Daily Post

Golfer Nick Dougherty _320

NICK DOUGHERTY is coming under increasing pressure in the race for places in the Ryder Cup team.

The Liverpool golfer – along with Henrik Stenson, Oliver Wilson and Graeme McDowell – has been overhauled by Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who is up to sixth on the European Ryder Cup table after his BMW International victory.

The top 10 who would earn places as things stand are Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, Kaymer, Stenson, Wilson, Dougherty and McDowell.

Stenson’s sixth place in Germany very nearly knocked Garcia out of an automatic spot. Open champion Harrington and Luke Donald would be favourites for team captain Nick Faldo’s two wildcard choices.

Dougherty is due to return to European Tour action this week at the French Open in Paris. He missed last week’s event after competing in the US Open the previous week.

He presently stands 58th in the world rankings, while on the European Order of Merit he is 42nd, with 327,581 euros from 12 events. Dougherty will be joined in France by Birchwood’s Phillip Archer, who is suffering from a poor run, despite coming through qualifying for the US Open. He has missed seven cuts out of eight, but is still 83rd in the European rankings with 186,895 euros from 18 events.

Leading places in the European Ryder Cup tables after the BMW International Open and Travellers Championship (top five on world list on August 31 qualify, plus next five on European list. Captain Nick Faldo then adds two wild cards)

(Capitals indicate players in qualifying positions)

World List: 1 LEE WESTWOOD 216.12, 2 MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ 174.86, 3 ROBERT KARLSSON 169.93, 4 JUSTIN ROSE 167.45, 5 SERGIO GARCIA 163.70, 6 Henrik Stenson 163.02, 7 Martin Kaymer 148.45, 8 Padraig Harrington 135.82, 9 Luke Donald 134.66, 10 Daniel Chopra 121.25, 11 Ian Poulter 109.20, 12 Oliver Wilson 108.40

European List: 1 Westwood 1,930,821, 2 Karlsson 1,811,985, 3 Jimenez 1,781,041, 4 MARTIN KAYMER 1,305,447, 5 HENRIK STENSON 1,293,239, 6 OLIVER WILSON 1,251,857, 7 Rose 1,240,877, 8 NICK DOUGHERTY 1,018,965, 9 GRAEME McDOWELL 975,322, 10 Soren Hansen 948,931, 11 Soren Kjeldsen 883,485, 12 Richard Finch 833,376