VIRGINIA WATER, England -- European Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo thinks he'll have a spot for Colin Montgomerie on this year's team, if the player can pull out of a recent slump.
Montgomerie has an unbeaten singles record in his eight Ryder Cup appearances but has struggled this year, failing to qualify for the Masters last month while falling to 90th on the world rankings.
"I firmly believe Monty will turn it around. I certainly haven't counted that out," Faldo said Tuesday ahead of the BMW PGA Championship, which will begin Thursday at Wentworth. "He has a great way of producing the goods when really needed. A player of his ability has enough time to make it happen."
Montgomerie has won six and halved two of his eight singles in Ryder Cup appearances, which could convince Faldo to make him one of the two wild-card picks for the tournament Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky.
"It all depends where he is over the last six weeks of qualifying, what I've got on the team and what I need," Faldo said.
While Montgomerie's form may be a concern, other players are giving Faldo more to cheer about.
Sergio Garcia, a mainstay of the last four European teams, had one of his best performances in years in winning The Players Championship at Sawgrass this month. Darren Clarke, meanwhile, got his first European Tour victory in five years a month ago in the Asian Open.
Clarke's wife Heather died of cancer in August 2006, a few weeks before the Ryder Cup at The K Club in Ireland, where he played and won all three of his matches.
Faldo said Clarke's victory in Asia "was great for Darren more so because of what he's been through off the golf course. Obviously I congratulate Darren on his efforts.
"What he showed at The K Club was character beyond belief."
The European team is looking to repeat its result from the last two events, when it won both with the same score of 18½ points to 9½, but Faldo -- now a commentator on U.S. television -- said the American players are all hungry for revenge.
"It is very prevalent, the number of players who talk about the Ryder Cup," he said. "They are very keen. Every interview, any player, they want to make that Ryder Cup team. It's the top priority for their top 50 guys."
He said U.S. captain Paul Azinger will make sure "they'll be coming at us full guns. And that's how our guys will be thinking, too."
