Monty: Poulter Is Dead To Me!

Okay maybe that's a bit of a mischaracterization, but you do have to wonder if we have some aftereffects of a love triangle featuring Faldo-Poulter-Monty since the next Ryder Cup Captain let it be known that he was not pleased Ian Poulter passed on the Seve Trophy. And that was without reading Poulter's Tweets today, which started off recounting his hangover and then appeared to be hijacked by his agent to extol the virtues of family time and gym time. It's all quite touching I tell you.

Six players from Britain and Ireland and two from continental Europe are not at St-Nom-la-Bretèche for what used to be called the Seve Trophy in honour of the Spanish player Seve Ballesteros. Paul Casey and Martin Kaymer are injured and Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald are playing in the Tour championship in Atlanta, but Poulter joined Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and Sergio García in turning down their places on teams led by Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn.

"I just feel that when you are selected for your country more of an effort might well have been made," said Montgomerie, who is in attendance to watch potential members of his side for Celtic Manor next October. "Ian Poulter, not having qualified for the Tour championship and having been picked for the last Ryder Cup team [Westwood, Rose and García all qualified], I felt that a little more effort might have been made to come here.

"I spoke to Miguel Angel Jiménez. He's never missed one of these and never would miss one. Good for him and I'm the same and Paul McGinley the same and Thomas. I haven't spoken to Ian at all. Please don't make any big issue of this.

Oh why would we do that?

A sampling of Poulter's reaction on Twitter: