Clarke and Westwood named as European wild cards

Northern Irishman Darren Clarke and England's Lee Westwood were named as the European Ryder Cup team's wild cards for the Sept. 22-24 defence against the United States by captain Ian Woosnam yesterday.

Clarke has missed much of the season because of the illness and subsequent death of his wife Heather and is not due to make his playing comeback until the week before the biennial match at the K Club in Ireland.

Clarke and Woosnam have played in the last four Ryder Cup teams.

Unusually, Europe are expected to start the match as favourites after a record 18-1/2 to 9-1/2 points victory in the last match near Detroit in 2004. They are aiming to win three-in-a-row having regained the trophy in 2002 at the Belfry.

"I expect it to go down to the wire again," said Woosnam.

The other 10 members of the European team who qualified directly are: Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal and Henrik Stenson.