Corey Pavin gets his Captain's picks half right for the Ryder Cup in Wales

Corey Pavin got his Ryder Cup captain’s picks half right. Tiger Woods and Zach Johnson were obvious picks, but I can’t say the same about the other two.

Stewart Cink brings Ryder Cup experience to the table, but he hasn’t done too much since his Open Championship win at Turnberry last year. In fact, his only Top 5 in 2010 is at the WGC Accenture Match Play championship, and his only other Top 10 finish is at The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide.

Rickie Fowler had a blistering start to 2010, but he’s run out of gas since July. His best finish since is 14th and he didn’t finish in the Top 30 all August. Tour players in their first full year on the road can feel the PGA Tour grind by the end of the summertime, and I’m not sure if Fowler will be as sharp as he’ll need to be.

Perhaps Pavin was looking for a young spark plug to counter Europe’s Rory McIlroy, but Fowler has a long way to go before he can be put on his level. If Pavin wanted some youth on his team, he should have gone with Anthony Kim, who was one of the main reasons the U.S. dominated at Valhalla.

Even Charley Hoffman’s blistering 62 to win the Deutsche Bank Championship yesterday should have gotten Pavin’s attention. You want someone red hot going into October, especially someone who can win big in a tough field. Hoffman has three Top 10s in his last six starts. That’s saying something - as much as his 62 yesterday.

Even though I think Europe’s team could have been much better with Paul Casey instead of Luke Donald, who kicked the door open for Hoffman with three straight bogeys on the back nine yesterday, I still give them a slight edge at Celtic Manor.