Clouds over Sergio Garcia’s push for Ryder Cup

Ian Poulter was among those left frustrated by the rain delay that sent the Wyndham Championship into a fifth day at Greensboro in North Carolina, and the Briton was not even playing.

Poulter knows if Sergio Garcia maintains his fourth-round lead to win his first title in the United States since the 2008 Players Championship, the Spaniard will push him out of the top 10 in the points list who automatically qualify for the 12-man European team to defend the Ryder Cup next month.

And with Poulter not entered for this week’s Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, the last counting event towards Europe’s line-up, such a scenario would leave him needing one of the two wild cards to be announced by captain Jose Maria Olazabal next Monday.

In reality, Olazabal is unlikely to go into the match against the United States at Medinah Country Club near Chicago without Poulter and Garcia (above), two players passionate about the cut and thrust of golf’s greatest team competition.

But while both would rather free Olazabal from the hassle of having to give one of them the nod, it was only Garcia who could influence events on a Greensboro course saturated by over two inches of rain which fell on Saturday night and again yesterday afternoon.

Garcia — a shot clear of the field — was set to resume on the fifth hole, with 37 other players also returning to finish their rounds.