1999 European Ryder Cup Team D a r r e n   C l a r k e Age: 31 World Ranking: 21 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 2nd Ryder Cup match record: 1-1-0 Backspin: Won last year's Volvo Masters to take the number two ranking in Europe. Won this year's English Open when he birdied the last five holes in both the third and fourth rounds. Narrowly missed becoming the first European to shoot 59 on the Tour when he fired a second-round 60 in the European Open last month. Had a hole-in-one in the third round but collapsed to a closing 75 as Lee Westwood won the title. A n d r e w   C o l t a r t Age: 29 World Ranking: 66 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Personable Scot was captain Mark James's surprise wild card selection. Played on Scotland's Alfred Dunhill Cup-winning team in 1995. Won the inaugural Qatar Masters title in 1998 for his only European Tour title to date. S e r g i o   G a r c i a Age: 19 World Ranking: 25 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Schoolboy who at 19 has already made himself a household name, helped in no small part by his second place to Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship. Turned pro earlier this year after winning the amateur medal at the Masters. Shot 62 in the opening round of his first U.S. Tour event as a pro, the Byron Nelson Classic, and finished joint third. Won the Irish Open for his first European Tour victory but had a disastrous British Open with last-place rounds of 89-83 at Carnoustie, which makes his performance at Medinah all the more remarkable. P a d r a i g   H a r r i n g t o n Age: 27 World Ranking: 72 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Clinched the last place among the 10 automatic qualifiers, two years after just missing out on selection for the 1997 match when he finished 12th in the table. Turned professional after playing in the winning Walker Cup amateur team side in 1995 and won the Spanish Open in his 1996 rookie season. Teamed with Paul McGinley to win the World Cup for Ireland at Kiawah Island in 1997. M i g u e l   A n g e l   J i m e n e z Age: 35 World Ranking: 45 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Consistent Spaniard is making his Cup debut after serving as deputy for 1997 captain Seve Ballesteros. Late-bloomer is an ex-caddie who only took up the game when he was 15. The best of his four victories before this year was at last year's Lancome Trophy where he chipped in from a difficult position for birdie on the final hole to earn the title and the award for the European Tour Shot-of-the-Year. Won the Turespana Masters this year. P a u l   L a w r i e Age: 30 World Ranking: 48 Majors: British ('99) Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Sprang to international prominence by winning this year's British Open at Carnoustie. The Scot had only one victory to show for seven years on the European Tour before this year, the 1996 Catalonia Open. But won the Qatar Masters in February and a 67 on the last day of the Open championship at Carnoustie last month earned him a place in the four-hole playoff against Frenchman Jean Van de Velde and American Justin Leonard. He beat them both by three shots. C o l i n   M o n t g o m e r i e Age: 36 World Ranking: 3 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 5th Ryder Cup match record: 9-6-3 Backspin: Ranked number one in Europe for the past six years and on course to retain the top ranking this year. Has won five titles on the European Tour this year, the Benson and Hedges International Open, the British PGA, the Loch Lomond, the Scandinavian Masters and, on Sunday, the BMW International Open. He now has 22 Tour wins to his credit. Has not won a major title but was second twice in the U.S. Open and once in the U.S. PGA. J o s e   M a r i a   O l a z a b a l Age: 33 World Ranking: 24 Majors: Masters ('94, '99) Ryder Cup appearance: 6th Ryder Cup match record: 14-8-3 Backspin: Scored an emotional victory at the U.S. Masters in April after being forced out of the game for 18 months earlier in his career with chronic foot problems. Won the 1994 Masters for his first major victory. Has 17 wins in Europe but none this year and in recent months has struggled with his driving. Had formidable partnership with Seve Ballesteros over four Ryder Cups in which they won 11, lost two and halved two of their 15 matches together. Likely to be paired with Sergio Garcia this time. J e s p e r   P a r n e v i k Age: 34 World Ranking: 15 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 2nd Ryder Cup match record: 1-2-1 Backspin: Twice runner-up in the British Open, in 1994 and 1997, the eccentric Swede professes to eating volcanic dust to purge his system. Lost 1994 Open to Nick Price and admitted afterwards he had failed to look at the scoreboard when he played the final hole in risky fashion to lose the title. Based in the United States, he plays both tours and won on both sides of the Atlantic last year. Only victory this year has been in the Greater Greensboro Open. J a r m o   S a n d e l i n Age: 32 World Ranking: 73 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Extroverted Finnish-born Swede won this year's Spanish Open to clinch a Cup debut. A flamboyant player who wields a 52-inch driver and wears crocodile-skin golf shoes and sometimes very tight-fitting clothes. Three top-10 finishes late last year put him in contention for a Cup debut and his Spanish victory clinched it. J e a n   V a n   d e   V e l d e Age: 33 World Ranking: 90 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 1st Ryder Cup match record: 0-0-0 Backspin: Made his name with a horrendous triple-bogey seven at the last hole of the British Open at Carnoustie when a six would have won him the title. Only Tour victory was at the Roma Masters in 1993. Has become a much-loved personality for his excruciating misadventures in the stream and the rough at Carnoustie and his upbeat reaction to a disaster that would have destroyed many other players. He lost the three-man playoff there to Paul Lawrie. L e e   W e s t w o o d Age: 26 World Ranking: 5 Majors: None Ryder Cup appearance: 2nd Ryder Cup match record: 2-3-0 Backspin: Troubled by a shoulder injury from mid-April to early June this year but regained top form to win the Dutch and European Opens in successive weeks this summer. Won on the U.S. Tour at the Freeport McDermott Classic in April last year and won the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan last November for the third successive year, then added the Dunlop Phoenix title the following week.

Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines.