Quality can miss the Ryder cut

A slow burner for Woosnam as the Belfry confrontation looms but Fasth proves to be on a fast learning curve

The penalty for carrying a 15th club in your bag in matchplay golf is loss of hole. Nothing could be more demoralising, or uplifting for an opponent, than to birdie the first two holes only for your caddie to whisper: "Sorry, boss, you're going to go ballistic but..." Two up to two down without hitting a ball is a devastating swing even the innumerate can recognise.

Given the Ryder Cup is a matchplay event, this may be pertinent information, although perhaps won't be at the forefront of the minds of Sam Torrance and Curtis Strange as they deliver their last-minute pep talks to their teams at The Belfry at the end of September.

Ian Woosnam's two-shot penalty during the final round of the Open at Royal Lytham will be a reminder enough for all players and caddies to check their bags on the first tee. But the incident, for which the 2001 Open will live in the memory, has, of course, already had its effect on the Ryder Cup, or at least the selection process for the European team.

Torrance has always supported the traditional system whereby 10 spots come automatically off the qualifying table – which ends at the BMW International in Munich on the first weekend in September – and he then adds his two wild cards. But Torrance will be wondering throughout August how to get three, or four, or five, or even six, into two.

As the table stands now, not only are Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik, the front-runners for the two wild cards, out of the top 10 but cases can be made for Woosnam (12th), Bernhard Langer (14th), Miguel Angel Jimenez (16th) and Jose Maria Olazabal (17th).

Woosnam might well have played his way into the team at Lytham but instead the big winner, other than David Duval, was Niclas Fasth. The 29-year-old Swede took his chance brilliantly to claim second place but remains an unknown quantity. He emerged from out of the pack, where the pressure was off, but did not falter once getting into the lead.

He says he revels in such situations and has certainly handled the pressure at the Tour School, where he has finished first and second over the years. The reason he had to go back to the school was that he spent a season playing both in Europe and on the US Tour, sinking without trace in the middle of the Atlantic. Having settled back in Europe, he won the Madeira Island Open last season. As is the case with his countryman Pierre Fulke, anyone who can hole putts under pressure is dangerous in matchplay. Fulke has had a bizarre season and his performance at Lytham matched it. In contention on the final day, he shot an 83.

Fulke qualified so early for the team, winning the Volvo Masters last November and finishing runner-up in the World Matchplay in Melbourne in January, that he was unlikely to maintain such form all year. He insists he plays better in the autumn than the spring and will be ready for the Ryder Cup.

This week's Scandinavian Masters at Barseback will be a chance for Parnevik to pull himself up the points list from 34th place, perhaps leaving him a high finish at the USPGA Championship away from making the team. For those pressing for a place, the situation is complicated by the fact that only the top 12 after the USPGA in Atlanta are eligible for the big money NEC World Invitational at Akron.

Torrance has been careful to say he would welcome on to the team any of the players scrapping for final spots, such as Phil Price, Paul McGinley and Andrew Coltart. He is right to do so and it is undeniable that the strength in depth of the European Tour has improved rapidly in recent seasons. Unfortunately, an out-dated selection system has not kept up.

There have been warning signs in the past. In 1995, Woosnam only got in because Olazabal withdrew at the last minute through injury. Two years later it was Miguel Angel Martin whose injury meant Parnevik, Olazabal and Nick Faldo all made the team. All the commotion about Martin was a smokescreen; the real villain of the piece was a system that allowed a player who, for whatever reason, had not scored a point for four months to qualify.

The 12-month qualifying period gives players a point for each euro won in European Tour events, plus American majors and world championship events. It does not take into account players such as Parnevik and Garcia who play full-time in the States and the arbitrary nature is shown by the fact that Langer's sixth place at the US Masters and his third at the Open are included, but his third at the US Players Championship does not count.

Next time, the Players may well be included but then so will the world rankings be taken into account in some form. A proposal from the players' Tournament Committee to do just that was turned down by the Ryder Cup Committee because there was not enough time to consider it before the start of the qualifying last September.

The top 10 on the world rankings include Garcia, Parnevik, Langer and Jimenez. As it is important not to allow the team to become a closed shop and give every European a chance to qualify, a compromise would be for the top five on the qualifying table to be joined by the leading five on the world rankings not otherwise exempt. This team would now be: Clarke, Bjorn, Harrington, Fulke, Westwood, Garcia, Montgomerie, Parnevik, Langer and Jimenez with, possibly, Woosnam and Olazabal as the wild cards.

A recent Golf World poll of players came up with seven names as unanimous choices: Monty, Garcia, Clarke, Parnevik, Bjorn, Harrington and Westwood; with Olazabal polling 93 per cent and Robert Karlsson (86), Langer (79), Jimenez (68) and Price (43) completing the team. Torrance can only wait, watch and pray.