Garcia pulls out

DIVOTS

Spaniard, Sergio Garcia, one of Europe's Ryder Cup heroes, has bypassed the lucrative HSBC World Match Play championships and will instead play in Majorca in two weeks' time.

Garcia said today it was "too risky" for him to play there. When asked to explain, he said, "It's just a couple of things outside of golf that don't allow me to. It's contract things and other stuff. Nothing you want to know about "" not worth talking about. It's my problem, not yours."

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love, Justin Leonard, Chris DiMarco and Shigeki Maruyama have turned down their invitations as well. But Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Todd Hamilton and Retief Goosen are among those playing.

Woods wants to be vice-captain

Tiger Woods wants to be made a playing vice-captain for the next American Ryder Cup team. Woods wanted more say in the running of the team for the 2006 event. He also wanted to work with the captain on the pairings and team strategy and on bringing the team together.

He was quoted as saying, "I basically kind of do that now, but if I were a vice-captain it would have an official role."

There is now talk that Wood's close friend, Mark O'Meara might take over from Sutton as the next captain. Then Woods can expect to be heavily involved in the planning.

American selection

Even as the Americans are licking their Ryder Cup wounds, Tiger Woods has suggested a change in selection methods. He said a two-year qualifying period for the US team was too long and he wants a 12-month period of qualification.

Stewart Cink was the only member of the team who had won a tournament since the end of May. The idea of selecting a team on the basis of 12 months is to ensure that the players currently in form are fielded and that makes a huge difference. The Europeans were all in great nick and Americans were not.

Bogeyman