Sips of Maginnes: Monty's timing a bit odd at Barclays

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Luke Donald found out during his round on Sunday that he'd made the Ryder Cup team.

PARAMUS, N.J. -- Less than an hour before he teed off for the final round of The Barclays Justin Rose took a phone call on the driving range.

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He removed himself from the throng and spoke in hushed tones for a few minutes. Before ending the call Justin gave his caddy the thumbs down. Although we don't know who was on the other end the message seemed clear. We knew someone was going to be left off this European Ryder Cup Team who undoubtedly deserved to be there. In this case it was Justin who is one win away from being the prohibitive favorite for Player of the Year on the PGA TOUR.

He is not the highest-ranked player ever left off a Ryder Cup Team, though. That dubious honor would have to go to Paul Casey who also must feel slighted by European Captain Colin Montgomerie. Casey moved up a spot last week and is now ranked eighth in the world.

IT WAS CLEARLY DISRUPTIVE to all concerned that the European Ryder Cup team was announced mid-round Sunday at The Barclays. Rose wasn't the only player affected. Luke Donald birdied the first six holes and shot 28 on the front nine. Walking off 10th green Luke was 7 under for the day and 10 under for the event. By the time he got to the 11th tee, he had gotten the good news that he was one of Monty's picks. He then bogeyed three of the next four holes and shot 40 on the back nine.

Two other potential candidates, Paul Casey and Padraig Harrington, were paired together on Sunday. Harrington's wife got the good news on the sixth hole and signaled her husband. When Casey didn't get a similar nod from his friend's wife, he was fairly certain he hadn't made the team. Padraig proceeded to bogey the seventh, didn't make another birdie all day and shot 75 in the final round. Casey did manage to hold it together and shoot a final-round 69 to slip inside the top 10.

Is it too much to ask that the Europeans make their selections after the final round of the tournament? Every player involved admitted that they were affected by the announcement -- whether they had started their rounds or not. Out of respect for their own players the Europeans should wait and allow them to compete.

Colin Montgomerie

MONTGOMERIE HAD A DIFFICULT decision for his wild-card picks since so many Europeans were playing well but U.S. Captain Corey Pavin faces a different kind of dilemma. Only three of the next six names in the standings beyond Matt Kuchar, who got the last automatic slot, even made the cut at The Barclays. Anthony Kim, Lucas Glover and Bo Van Pelt all had the weekend off and did nothing in their quest to impress Corey and earn one of the four remaining spots on the U.S. side.

If there was ever any doubt, Tiger Woods seemed to solidify himself as a Captain's Pick, though. Zach Johnson who finished 11th in points had a solid Barclays but didn't contend. Stewart Cink has got to be part of the conversation even though he was 14th in points after the PGA Championship. Cink made the cut had a nice solid week at The Barclays as well. Pavin will make his picks on Tuesday, Sept. 7 after the Deutsche Bank Championship is over.

DAVE STOCKTON AND SONS Dave Jr. and Ron were all on the practice green early last week working with the best players in the world. Dave, who is not yet in the World Golf Hall of Fame but should be, talked about the incredible year that he and his sons have had as short game instructors. Dave said the whole thing "blew up" when it became known that he had been working with Phil Mickelson.

The fact that Phil gave Dave and his boys a tremendous amount of credit while he was earning his third Green Jacket didn't hurt. Ron works primarily on the LPGA Tour and "Junior" works with guys that he has known for years on the PGA TOUR so the Stocktons have all of their bases covered.

One final note on Dave Sr. I asked him this week if Phil Mickelson could consider the year a success if his game doesn't turn around. Dave smiled and said, "He won the Masters, that is a good year."

Laird

MARTIN LAIRD STARTED working on his short game with Dave Stockton Jr. at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational a month ago -- and the hard work showed as he led the field in putting at The Barclays. Laird also works with South African instructor Mark McCann.

The Scotsman did not have a three-putt in the first three rounds, and he had seven one putts on the back nine heading into the final hole. Based on that it was unpredictable that he would three-putt the final green to fall into a playoff with Matt Kuchar. Matt obviously made quick work of the playoff by staking it out of the rough and rolling in a birdie putt from inside 3 feet.

SCOTT PIERCY was the last man in the field for the first event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. He played his way into The Barclays with a tie for eighth in the final event of the regular season. And for the first 27 holes at Ridgewood it looked as if Piercy was going to take advantage of his good fortune and make a run deep into the Playoffs.

As he came to the driveable par-4 fifth hole, Piercy was 4 under and well inside the cut line. Once he drove into the greenside bunker, though, things went terribly wrong. He bladed it over the green into the bunker on the other side. When all the dust had settled Piercy made a triple bogey 7. All was not lost, though, until he pulled his second shot left of the ninth green and made a double bogey to miss the cut by a shot. A finish like that stings any week but in the Playoffs remorse lingers a little longer. In Piercy's case it should be about a month, until he gets a chance to tee it up again.

FOUR PLAYERS MADE the cut at The Barclays but will not advance to the second round of the Playoffs. John Marrick, David Duval, Jonathan Byrd and Robert Garrigus all earned points at The Barclays -- just not enough. Garrigus came to the 18th on Sunday needing a birdie to advance.

After making a bogey at the final hole Garrigus will end the year 107th in the FedExCup -- but the extra weeks at home won't sting so bad since his wife is due to deliver their first child in about three weeks. By contrast Andres Romero birdied four of his last five holes and the final birdie was just enough to slip past Kevin Sutherland in points and earn a spot in the Deutche Bank Championship.

TIGER WOODS LED the field in driving accuracy at Ridgewood last week. The No. 1 player in the world was ranked 180th on the PGA TOUR in that category this year and he came into the week at Ridgewood hitting just 55.32 percent of his fairways. At the Barclays Tiger hit 78.6 percent, though -- only missing 12 all week.

Former PGA TOUR player John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.