Ryder Cup trio take centre stage

No sooner had Stewart Cink been selected for the United States Ryder Cup team than he went and won a tournament. All season long he had played anxious golf and succeeded only in worrying his way out of the top 10 to become dependent on being picked.

When he was, a huge wave of relief carried him to victory in the NEC Invitational next week. Such is the pressure exerted by the Ryder Cup.

Now the Cink scenario could be matched here by Luke Donald who, selected for the European team on Sunday, played his way yesterday into contention for the European Masters.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, who qualified for the team early in the season and has relaxed his way into four wins this year, leads with a six-under-par 65, with Marc Farry, Peter Hedblom and Sergio Garcia a stroke behind. Then comes Donald with his 67 which, like most rounds, could have been a couple of shots better.

Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who finished strongly last week with a final round of 62 in Munich, continued his good from with a two under par 69 yesterday.

McDowell shot six birdies but also dropped four shots. He went to the turn in two under par 34 which included four birdies and came home in level par 35 for his 69.

Peter Lawrie was the only other Irish player to match par or better on the opening day. The Dubliner fired a level par 71 that included birdies at the first, seventh and 15th, a bogey at the ninth and a double bogey seven at the long 14th.

Damien McGrane is on one over par after a 72 while Gary Murphy needs a good round today after a first round three over par 74.

Donald said afterwards: "The last few weeks I have played with a lot of pressure on my shoulders, so today I tried to have some fun. I was cruising along at five under after 11 when maybe I had a little bit of a lapse in concentration. Maybe I got too relaxed." Having dropped a shot at the fifth, his 14th, Donald made the mistake of not getting past the dog-leg with his tee shot to the sixth, could not see the green as a result, left his second short, chipped badly and then three-putted.

That sequence may be more than "a little bit of a lapse", containing four quite considerable errors, but at least it jolted Donald out of cruise control. He birdied the next two holes and was pleased overall with his round.

Jimenez won in Munich last week with a superb display that got overshadowed by the obsession with the Ryder Cup picks and he plans to play in next week's German Masters, the week before the cup match in Detroit. But he will come under pressure not to from another Spaniard, Garcia.

If Jimenez does play, the Ryder Cup will be the Spaniard's sixth tournament in six weeks and Garcia does not think that a good idea.

"I will talk to him about that," said Garcia. "He has been playing unbelievably and, if you are contending in an event, it takes a lot outof you.

"For myself this is my fourth week in a row and I am really looking forward to a rest next week. So I will talk to him. We don't want him to be tired on Saturday afternoon or Sunday."

Garcia is a team member delighted by the inclusion of Colin Montgomerie and the Scot himself could hardly be happier. Langer said, when he told him he was being picked, that all the players who had previously qualified had said, when asked, that they wanted Monty in the team. "In a way," said Montgomerie, "that means more to me than being picked.

"To have the approval of everyone on the team is very satisfying as I don't think there was any sentiment in those answers. Why would there be? They wanted me on the team because of what I can do, not what I have done in the past. I feel ready to go and do well. If I didn't, I would have said no."