Faldo facing tough calls - McDowell - Sport in brief

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After overlooking Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke for wild cards and with Luke Donald absent through injury, Faldo has lost the obvious partners for Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia respectively.

"We've been toying with ideas the last few days, trying to match the players together," said McDowell. "There's not a huge amount of obvious pairings that I can see."

He added: "Maybe Henrik Stenson and Karlsson perhaps? Westwood and Garcia is obvious but he's mentioned that he's looking to guys like that to put an arm around some of the younger players.

"After that it becomes quite difficult. It's a tough team to put together. Nick has a tough job on his hands and I just hope we play well come Thursday next week to make his job a little easier."

Faldo has vowed all along to listen to what his players want in terms of pairings, and McDowell was quick to make his case for partnering Harrington, winner of both the Open Championship and USPGA in 2008, or world number five Garcia.

"I think with another 10 players on the team I would love to play with Padraig, he's pretty much the best player in the world at the minute," added the 29-year-old Ulsterman. "I think Padraig is the obvious choice for me but I'm sure Nick has his own ideas.

"I have to say I would be excited to play with anyone. I feel like I get on well with Sergio and played with him a couple of times this year. So Padraig or Sergio, I don't think I'll be alone in those choices, no doubt about it!"