COLIN MONTGOMERIE has entered the guessing game on who will make the Ryder Cup next year – by writing down his dream team.

“It’s in a drawer at home and it will be interesting to see how close the team comes out to that particular 12,” Europe’s captain said on the eve of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles yesterday.

Qualifying for Celtic Manor starts next week in Switzerland and it will be back at Gleneagles in a year’s time that the nine automatic qualifiers and Montgomerie’s three wild cards will be known.

While refusing to disclose any of his names Montgomerie has presumably stuck pretty close to the current world rankings.

In order the top 12 Europeans are Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer, Robert Karlsson, Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy, Ross Fisher, Luke Donald and Soren Kjeldsen.

Among those there are four players who would be making their cup debuts – Kaymer, McIlroy, Fisher and Kjeldsen – but only last week Montgomerie spoke in glowing terms of big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, so perhaps he is in ahead of Kjeldsen.

Montgomerie will be calling on all eligible players to enter the Tour’s flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next May – Harrington, Garcia and Poulter have stayed away in recent years – and the Wales Open on the course where the Americans will be defending the trophy next October.

He also expects a star-studded field on the next staging of this week’s event because it will be the final counting tournament.

That, however, is in stark contrast to the cast list over the next four days.

Oliver Wilson and Soren Hansen are the only two members of last year’s cup side playing and are also the two highest-ranked player at 44th and 49th in the world.

There will be a strong Irish contingent at Gleneagles. Peter Lawrie, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, Shane Lowry, Gary Murphy, Gareth Maybin and Jonathon Caldwell are all competing.

THE LOWDOWN

Course:Centenary Course, Gleneagles, Perthshire.


Length:7,316. Par: 72.

Prizemoney:€1.5 million (€265,912 to the winner)

Layout:Scenic but very exposed. The fairways are pretty generous with large undulating greens. Strong winds and mist are among the hazards The fourth is the toughest of the short holes.

Field:156

Defending champion:Gregory Havret beat Graeme Storm by one shot.

On TV:Live on Sky Sports 1 (10am)

Weather forecast:Cool, cloudy and wet especially at the weekend and it will be very windy.