Peter Thomson has gone out on a limb in picking Steve Elkington as one of his two wild cards for the International team to defend the President's Cup in October.

Not only is Elkington out of action following arthroscopic hip surgery, but he is ranked only 17th on the criteria for automatic selection to the team to take on the United States from October 19th-22nd at the Robert Trent Jones Club in Virginia.

There could be no argument with the choice of Robert Allenby as he was 11th on the list and his form, which includes two US tour wins this season, demanded selection for the Cup contest. But Thomson passed over several higher-ranked players to pick Elkington and is confident he has done the right thing.