lehman struggling for cup place

By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Chicago

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Tom Lehman will not be qualifying for his own Ryder Cup team - and it looks certain that Fred Couples will not be playing at the K Club either.

Lehman needed a seventh place finish in the United States PGA Championship to finish in the top 10 of the United States qualifying table.

He was coming under pressure from other team members to play if that happened, but by matching Colin Montgomerie's rounds of 77 and 71 the 47-year-old missed the halfway cut on Friday.

He was in a play-off for The International last Sunday and if he had won it would have jumped to seventh spot in the standings, but Dean Wilson beat him with a birdie at the second extra hole and Lehman moved up only to 19th.

Couples, 16th on the table, crashed out on three over and since he has not had a top 10 finish since being joint third in the Masters in April - and has had some more back trouble in between - it will be a massive shock if Lehman hands him one of his two wild cards on Monday.

Eleventh-placed John Rollins finished two over at Medinah and also seemed likely to miss out.

As for the European race, Paul McGinley's decision to withdraw and attend the funeral of Darren Clarke's wife Heather may not damage his hopes of a third cap too much.

McGinley is 10th in the race with two more weeks to come and 11th-placed Paul Broadhurst missed the cut on six over.

A week after naming his two wild cards Lehman will take most of the team on a private charter to the K Club for early practice.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are not among those expected to attend, but European tour director of operations David Garland said: "Their tournament starts on a Friday and ends on the Monday, so they've a little window to fly in, play and fly back with time to spare."

European captain Ian Woosnam said when told of the plan: "Obviously they want to win this time. I'm quite sure they'll be able to play the course very near to what it will be like for the match, apart from the rough growing just a little bit more."