McGinley seals place

Paul McGinley and Bernhard Langer yesterday sealed their places in Europe's Ryder Cup team.

Their presence at The Belfry next month was confirmed when Phillip Price missed the halfway cut in the BMW International Open in Munich.

Dubliner McGinley will make his cup debut, while Langer, 44 last Monday, joins Nick Faldo and Christy O'Connor Senior as the only players to appear on 10 teams.

McGinley is eighth and Langer ninth in the points table but Sergio Garcia has already been guaranteed a wild card by captain Sam Torrance if he needs it, so only two places remain up for grabs this weekend.

Langer's presence ensures Europe will not go into the match without a major champion in their ranks for the first time.

Langer added a 69 to his opening 67 yesterday to lie eight under, while 34-year-old McGinley is on the same mark following a 66 achieved despite waking up at 2.30 a.m. because of jet-lag.

He said: "I felt it was important to make the team on a positive rather than negative note, so I'm thrilled to have achieved such a lofty goal.

"I was dreading having to come to this tournament still fighting for my place because I think 62nd is my best-ever finish here. I wanted to make this team so badly and thought it was important too to produce quality rather than quantity. I've taken my breaks and in the whole year of qualifying I've missed only one cut."

That, ironically, was at the K Club , the course he represents.

Meanwhile, Jose Maria Olazabal produced one of the shots of his life and one of the finishes of his life to re-ignite his hopes of a seventh Ryder Cup cap as Price headed for home wondering if his dream of a debut is about to be crushed.

Olazabal sank a 235-yard one-iron for an albatross two and played the last eight holes in seven under par for a course record-equalling 62.

At the halfway stage of the 45th and final qualifying event the 35-year-old Spaniard, who needs to win tomorrow to knock Price out, is 12 under par and lying joint third.

But he is still five behind John Daly, who eagled the last from 30 feet and added a 64 to his opening 63.

That the American is on course for his first victory since the 1995 Open would in any other week be one of the stories of the season, but the Ryder Cup has become so big that Daly must almost feel like a side issue at the moment.

Price, in the 10th and last automatic place, has opened the door by missing the cut following rounds of 71 and 70. He might well still make it because 11th-placed Ian Poulter and 12th-placed Miguel Angel Jimenez missed the cut too.