Clarke, Bjorn and McGinley to be Europe vice-captains

Jul 20, 2010, 11:55 GMT

London - Europe captain Colin Montgomerie named Irishmen Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn as his three vice-captains for the Ryder Cup contest against the United States in October.

All three men have been part of several winning teams and Montgomerie said he was convinced they were the right men for the job.

'Today is a very special day,' Montgomerie said at a press conference at Wentworth, the headquarters of the European Tour.

'They are three very experienced, very passionate and respected and three people very committed to regaining the Ryder Cup.'

When he was first named as skipper, Montgomerie had wanted two- time former US Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal to be one of his vice-captains, but the Spaniard has been struggling with injury for much of the past year.

'I think Jose Maria will be a captain of the Ryder Cup team in the future but unfortunately he is not keeping good health at the moment,' Montgomerie said.

'He hasn't really played that much on the European Tour over the past two years of qualification and I think it is important to see the players week in, week out.

'I have spoken to Jose Maria and explained the situation and he just wished us the best in our quest to regain the Ryder Cup.'

With six qualifying events remaining, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ross McGowan occupy the nine automatic places in the 12-man team.

Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia are all battling to make it by right, but may all have to rely on being one of Montgomerie's three wild card choices.

For the United States, who won the trophy in 2008, Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Lucas Glover and Matt Kuchar are in the eight automatic spots.

United States captain Corey Pavin will name his four wild card picks on September 7.