Faldo rests Monty

After suffering defeats in his first two matches Colin Montgomerie was left out by his Seve Trophy captain Nick Faldo at The Heritage west of Dublin on Saturday morning.

With Britain and Ireland level 5-5 with Continental Europe overnight Faldo decided to rest 44-year-old Montgomerie, easily his oldest player, and his Scottish partner Marc Warren, the wild card who cut himself badly on Thursday when swinging a club in his hotel room and smashing a chandelier.

Two years ago Montgomerie was again left out of the Saturday greensomes and he was the captain who made the decision then, although Faldo has already revealed Monty, who also sat out one session at each of the last two Ryder Cups, will be back for the afternoon foursomes.

"That's pretty obvious," stated Faldo, who added that Warren's omission had nothing to do with his health after the scary incident. "Physically he's good, but he's struggling with his swing a bit. I had ideas in my mind, but didn't end up resting the two guys I thought I would."

Montgomerie and Warren are the only two not to have contributed to the home team's score so far - Welshman Bradley Dredge and England's Phillip Archer have won twice together and, not surprisingly therefore, have not been parted for the greensomes.

Paul Casey and Justin Rose, the highest ranked players in Faldo's line-up, also won on Friday, as did Oliver Wilson and Simon Dyson, and for the third session running Faldo has kept together his other two English players Nick Dougherty and Graeme Storm.

They have gone to the 18th green twice already, winning on Thursday, but losing on Friday to Finn Mikko Ilonen and Austrian Markus Brier.