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Sergio Garcia’s win likely put him on Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
Each Thursday, the Boston Globe hands out its weekly golf award, goes inside the numbers, and looks at the week ahead on the tours:
Player of the week
Sergio Garcia. It took an extra day, but the Spaniard earned his first PGA Tour win since the 2009 Players Championship when he captured the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C. In typical Garcia style — or so he would probably say — the victory was almost totally overshadowed by the news of Augusta National finally admitting its first female members. But Garcia led for most of the weekend, which spilled into Monday because of Sunday rain. With the win, he jumped 12 spots in the world golf rankings (to 17th), 69 spots in the FedEx Cup points list (to 33d), and, most importantly to Garcia, safely among the automatic qualifiers for Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
Select few
The top eight players on the US Ryder Cup points list earned automatic spots once the PGA Championship concluded. Team Europe’s qualifying system is slightly different. Two lists are used, with five from each getting the nod after this week’s European Tour event in Scotland. The first list is money earned in European Tour events starting Sept. 1, 2011; the second is points earned off the world ranking list, also from Sept. 1. Players must be European Tour members. Here’s how each list currently looks:
| RANK | EUROPEAN | WORLD |
| 1. | Rory McIlroy | Rory McIlroy |
| 2. | Justin Rose | Luke Donald |
| 3. | Graeme McDowell | Justin Rose |
| 4. | Paul Lawrie | Lee Westwood |
| 5. | Francesco Molinari | Graeme McDowell |
| 6. | Peter Hanson | Sergio Garcia |
| 7. | Luke Donald | Peter Hanson |
| 8. | Martin Kaymer | Francesco Molinari |
| 9. | Nicolas Colsaerts | Paul Lawrie |
| 10. | Lee Westwood | Martin Kaymer |
Related
Players can’t be selected from both lists, so the current team of 10 automatic qualifiers would be McIlroy, Rose, McDowell, Lawrie, Molinari, Donald, Westwood, Garcia, Hanson, and Kaymer. Jose Maria Olazabal will also make two captain’s picks to round out the team.
On the radar
Don’t know much about Steven Fox, who won the US Amateur at Cherry Hills in exciting fashion, winning the 35th and 36th holes to extend the match, then making a birdie on the 37th to end it? He’ll be a senior at Tennessee-Chattanooga, didn’t bring a razor to Denver because he wasn’t sure he’d be playing deep into match play (hence the beard), and ran out of shirts (buying a pink one in the Cherry Hills clubhouse). He’ll be playing in next year’s Masters, US Open, and British Open, so he won’t be unknown for much longer.
Quote of the week
“These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership. It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall.” — Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, in announcing that Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore have become the club’s first two female members.