'Awful' greens must be dug up, says Westwood

When Nick Faldo eventually deigns to turn up here on Sunday, just a few hours before the end of a tournament that happens to be deciding the make-up of his Ryder Cup team, he could well find his players not taking on the venue for the match with America with drivers and seven irons, but instead with shovels and hoes. In short, they want the place dug up.

However, the Europe captain should not let that image ruin the very important – and do not dare mention the word "lucrative" – corporate days he is attending at Wentworth today and tomorrow, as the focus of his men's dissatisfaction is not Valhalla, Kentucky, but Gleneagles, Perthshire.

This impressive complex is due to host the Ryder Cup in 2014, which, in the minds of some of European golf's biggest names, gives them six years to do a Ground Force on the layout that has the catchy title, "The PGA Centenary Course". And Lee Westwood, for one had a 100 reasons why, in his words, "They can't bring the Ryder Cup on to greens like this". Westwood had watched in abject horror during a far from disastrous first-round 72 in the Johnnie Walker Championship as putts suddenly veered off line with all the warning of a drunk on his way home from Happy Hour. "I said the greens were awful this time last year and something needed to be done – nothing was done," he said. "My fear for the Ryder Cup is that they are just going to keep patching them up over the years.

"They should rip them up and redo them with the right construction underneath them. They have a bit of rain and the best professionals in Europe can't hit the hole from two feet.

"They really do need digging up. I'm not a bad putter and I can't remember the last time I three-putted from 18 inches." That came on the fifth when the resulting double bogey sent Westwood hurtling down a leaderboard headed by the Frenchman Gregory Havret with a five-under par 68. "It's like a minefield around that cup," said Westwood. Yet it was the undulating putting surface on the seventh for which the furious Englishman retained his most scathing criticism. "My kids could come up with a better design in an afternoon," he said.

It was a colourful rant by Westwood, delivered with plenty of the Worksop man's renowned dry humour, although he was being deadly serious in his observations. What has upset him – and indeed many others here – is the scale of the prizes at stake. Westwood, himself, was playing with Oliver Wilson, one of the competitors attempting to stay in the automatic qualifying positions and so make their Ryder Cup debuts in Kentucky next month.

"They are the guys I feel sorry for," he said, after seeing Wilson struggle to a 76 that leaves him precariously placed near the cut-line. "There is a lot riding on this week – getting in the Ryder Cup for the first time is a big deal – but unfortunately this could be won or lost by luck on the greens if it bobbles at the wrong time," he said. "You don't want to be standing over a three-footer wondering if the ball is going to run straight."

Talking about running straight, after a 74 that is exactly what Colin Montgomerie usually does – all the way to a waiting car. But perhaps mindful that one-over is not too calamitous, and, more pertinently, that he needs the media on his side should he force his way into the reckoning for Faldo's two captain's picks, Montgomerie was only too pleased to stop to give his thoughts. "That's OK, that's OK," he said. "You can still win the tournament from being one-over."

Nevertheless, the Scot has already lost ground on Darren Clarke, the Ulsterman who is the favourite of those playing here to receive a wild card. Following his emphatic victory in the Netherlands last week, Clarke carried on the form with a 72 which leaves him handily placed. Meanwhile, over in Boston, where Paul Casey and Ian Poulter – the other Europeans who are supposedly the other contenders in the two out of three dilemma – are playing, the Open champion Padraig Harrington was keen to talk up the candidacy of his fellow Irishman.

"I don't see how you couldn't pick Clarke," said Harrington, in between practice for the Deutsche Bank Championship which begins today. "He's won twice this year, his form has been very good in recent weeks and he's played on five Ryder Cups and had four winning teams. And he's a natural partner to Lee Westwood."

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