The remarkable victory by Italy's Edoardo Molinari in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Sunday earned him a spot on the European Ryder Cup as one of Colin Montgomerie's three captains picks, Montgomerie said on Sunday.

Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald were his other two captain's picks. Paul Casey, who is ninth in the World Ranking, and Justin Rose, who has won twice on the PGA Tour this year, were the odd men out.

Molinari birdied the final three holes at Gleneagles to win for the second time in his last six starts. He'll join his brother Francesco Molinari, who made the Ryder Cup team on points.

"What can one say about today's performance?" Montgomerie said. "In my time, as a player on the European Tour, I don't think I've seen a finish of that quality under such pressure by anyone, ever."

Montgomerie chose Harrington based on his historic standing in the game, rather than his form in the two years that have expired since his last victory.

"Three major championships in the last three years," Montgomerie said explaining the Harrington pick. "The stature of Padraig Harrington and someone that we feel that nobody in match-play golf wants to play. A great competitor."

Donald, who is 10th in the World Ranking, was selected based on his Ryder Cup history.

"Luke Donald, we have someone who can compete in foursomes and four-ball golf. Seven times in Ryder Cup play and has only lost in one particular game," Montgomerie said.

The nine players who earned berths based on points: Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Franceso Molinari, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.

As for Casey and Rose, Montgomerie said, "I'd rather just comment on the strengths of the ones that have been picked. I feel sorry for Paul Casey and Justin Rose, [the latter] for having won twice in the States this year. We have an embarrassment of riches on this occasion. We had to leave out world stars."

Rose was tied for eighth at the Barclays early in the final round on Sunday.

-- John Strege

Clearview GC, which has been threatened by the possibility of a coal mine operation on property adjacent to the historic course in East Canton, Ohio, is breathing a little easier because the mine owner has pulled its application with state officials, according to head professional Renee Powell.

Still, the course is hopeful of finding someone to purchase the land and donate it to the Clearview Legacy Foundation for a permanent solution to the mining dilemma. "That would be the best scenario," Powell said. "We still need to find a final solution."

Clearview is the only course designed, built, owned and operated by an African-American, Bill Powell, who died last year at 93. When the course celebrates the legacy of its founder Saturday with the 2010 William J. Powell Celebrity Golf Tournament, two other pioneering black golf figures, Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder, will be on hand. "Their trip to Clearview is one of paying respect to a man who did so much to to help make golf accessible for all people," said Renee Powell.

Frustrated by discriminatory practices at golf courses and intent on having a place where all golfers were welcome, Bill Powell opened Clearview in 1948. In 2001 it was named a National Historic Site by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

-- Bill Fields

Here is a White House press pool report from President Obama's nine holes at Mink Meadows Golf Club on Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday (and when you read it you'll be reminded why, when recounting a round of golf to friends, it's best just to skip to the last hole out of regard for their tedium threshold):

"Shortly before 5:30 p.m. he and his golfing pals - Whitaker, Nicholson, Wolf - came into view of the clubhouse where pool and a couple dozen patrons were waiting on the porch. POTUS hit the ball just short of the green on the 9th hole.

"His partners took their turns. POTUS walked into the woods a moment, perhaps looking for a fellow-golfer's ball. He rode in a golf cart toward his ball, and got out carrying a putter and a wedge. He dropped the putter but quickly picked it back up.

"With the crowd on the clubhouse porch watching, POTUS took three warm-up swings. He then hit the ball and as it got closer to the hole, the crowd oohed and ahhed and, when it stopped, gave him a golf clap.

"POTUS, who until then had not acknowledged his audience, jokingly tipped his White Sox cap to the people on the porch. They laughed.

"Pool was rushed off the porch and into vans so didn't see how the rest of the hole went.

"POTUS walked to his motorcade in the parking lot at 5:41 p.m. with his jacket slung over his right shoulder."

Riveting.

-- John Strege

The disqualification of Jim Furyk from the Barclays for having arrived late for his tee time in the pro-am on Wednesday created a good deal of debate on the wisdom of cashiering a star for what would seem a minor offense. Blogger Geoff Shackelford has a roundup here, including Phil Mickelson's vehement opposition to the severity of the punishment.

The point missing from the debate is that the pro-am is sacrosanct, the lifeblood of the PGA Tour. It generates significant revenues and provides sponsors with a means of entertaining clients, and to do so in a meaningful way requires the best players are involved.

"The rule is there for a purpose," said one long time tournament director, Tom Wilson, of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. "There were some players who for some reason or other were not showing up for pro-ams. The only way to make sure they did was to put the rule in place and to make sure the penalty was severe.

"Pro-ams are tremendously important, a huge part of our net revenues, 40 percent. It's very important for sponsors, too, a way for them to entertain guests, top clients, potential clients."

He said Farmers Insurance receives 60 pro-am spots. The previous sponsor, Buick, received 52 spots. The sponsors footing the bill expect a return on their investment, including their top clients playing alongside the best players in the field.

-- John Strege

OK, so it's early, but still, Tiger Woods' name atop a leaderboard in the summer of his discontent is worth noting, no?

Woods opened with birdies on three of the first five holes in the Barclays and he's hit every green in regulation and three of four fairways.

-- John Strege

It sometimes seems that way. Miguel Angel Jimenez, for instance, is forgoing his nephew's wedding on Saturday to play in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in an attempt to secure a berth on the European Ryder Cup team. Originally he wasn't going to play at Gleneagles.

European captain Colin Montgomerie, meanwhile, suggested that more than pride is at stake in the Ryder Cup scheduled to be played in Wales in October, that European Tour sponsorships can turn on the outcome.

"We need to remember the most important thing is to win," he said Wednesday. "If we do that, we'll keep sponsors and find new ones. The people who will benefit most from a victory are not those competing in America but those who play week-in, week-out on the European Tour."

Montgomerie was referring to four European stars who have not earned automatic berths on the European team -- Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Justin Rose -- yet are playing in the Barclays in the U.S. this week, rather than at Gleneagles, in the final European team qualifying tournament.

-- John Strege

The Titleist irons said to have been used by Tiger Woods in accomplishing his Tiger Slam in 2000-'01 are back on the auction block, at Green Jacket Auctions. Two bids already have been received, the opening bid at $1,000.

The irons belong to former Titleist tour representative Steve Mata, who in May listed them on eBay for a starting bid of $250,000. When Woods disputed that those were the irons he had used in winning four straight major championships, eBay removed the listing.

Mata once worked closely with Woods on his equipment and said that Tiger gave him the irons.

Green Jacket Auctions notes that it hired a polygraph examiner to give Mata a lie detector test.

"Have you ever even heard of someone taking a polygraph to support a piece of sports memorabilia?" the website asks. "We hadn't, but figured one of the greatest pieces of golf memorabilia in history deserved for us to think outside the box and go all-out to prove its authenticity. Steve Mata, of course, passed."

-- John Strege

It was probably past due, professional tournament golf returning to Shoal Creek, but then how can you know when an appropriate penance has been paid in full on a racial injustice?

Twenty years have passed since Shoal Creek founder Hall Thompson ignited a firestorm that helped drag golf into the 20th century just in time for the 21st century. When he was asked why the club had no black members, he infamously replied, "because that's just not done in Birmingham, Ala."

Next May, Shoal Creek will host the Regions Tradition, a Champions Tour event and the first high-profile professional event since the controversial PGA Championship was played there in 1990.

Shoal Creek, a Jack Nicklaus design, had been destined to host major championships. It was the site of two, the PGA Championship in 1984 and '90, as well as the 1986 U.S. Amateur. Today, it is ranked 50th in Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest.

But in the wake of the controversy, it hosted only lesser events, including a collegiate tournament, the Jerry Pate Invitational, that Tiger Woods won as a Stanford freshman in October of 1994. His teammates teased Woods by referring to it as Soul Creek.

Prior to the final round, a group of African-Americans who had asked that he boycott the event formed outside Shoal Creek's gates to protest his playing there.

Today, Shoal Creek has several African-American members, including Condoleezza Rice, because that is done in Birmingham and virtually everywhere else these days. That's the legacy of Shoal Creek, from which a disservice ultimately provided a service to a game in dire need of one.

-- John Strege