Digest: Captain Ian Woosnam has warned European players who chase the US dollar that they are risking their chances of winning a Ryder Cup wild card.
Woosnam implied yesterday that players who have competed mainly in America and failed to make it by the world points route by the September 3rd deadline would not be his first choices when his wild card picks are made for the clash at the K Club.
While there is a quite a cadre of Europeans featuring on the US Tour, Woosnam picked out two in particular, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington, who lie 12th and 13th on the world points table, as indicative of his problem.
"Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood need to start making a move really on their Ryder Cup world points," he said.
"They don't want to be leaving themselves too much to do. I think I'll have to be firm about it and say people who play more in Europe will have more of a chance of getting in the team.
"They can think what they like. We are a European team. I know there is a lot of money to make in America, but they have to make a choice."
Woosnam last year cited Luke Donald as an example of what he would like to see from his Europeans playing in America. The Englishman sacrificed many of his US Tour events in 2004 to return to Europe to try to qualify for that year's Cup, just failed, but earned a wild card for his efforts from Bernhard Langer.
Meanwhile, Michelle Wie's bid to become the first woman to make the cut in a major men's tour event since 1945 got off to a solid start with a two-under-par 70 in the first round of the SK Telecom Open in South Korea.
The 16-year-old American trailed clubhouse leader Adam Le Vesconte by five shots after the Australian fired an opening seven-under 65 in the Asian Tour event at the Sky 72 Golf Club to the west of Seoul.
Wie powered her opening drive past the efforts of her two male playing partners, and carded the first of four birdies in her round at the first hole.
In the US, a two-under-par 70 was also good enough to give Britain's Justin Rose a share of sixth place midway through the opening day of the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The 7,452-yard Quail Hollow course rates as one of the longest and most demanding on the US Tour, and so it proved until South African Trevor Immelman, two over at the turn, covered the front nine in a spectacular, six-birdie 30 to set the clubhouse target with Bill Haas on 68.
Rose, looking to get his season going again after four events in which he has failed to finish in the top 50, was level par with six to go, but then birdied the fourth and fifth to climb into a group which included Retief Goosen.
Donald, playing for the first time since Augusta, was two under as well until he bogeyed the short 17th, while Ireland's Graeme McDowell struggled from the start on the way to a disappointing 76.
