It was a depressing statistic but what relevance does it have for The Belfry? Sam Torrance Europe’s captain argued not a

It was a depressing statistic, but what relevance does it have for The Belfry? Sam Torrance, Europe’s captain, argued not a lot and to an extent he was right “The PGA has never been a great one,” Torrance said. “It’s always hot and humid and over the years we’ve not performed that well, so I’m not going to look that deeply into it. It’s always a tough one for us.”[The States] had quite a few players struggling and we’re certainly not in a worse position than they are. With the excitement of the Cup, it can lift you from the depths of despair to the heights of your game.”The Ryder Cup format is so different from normal tournament play that defining trends in form and extrapolating them to the match is often unhelpful. If things get close, experience of tense situations is often more important.

But there is a limit and Strange himself found that out at Oak Hill in 1995. Picked as a wild card by Lanny Wadkins for experience rather than current form, Strange did not win a point and bogeyed the last three holes to lose to Nick Faldo in the pivotal singles.How often have players said that the Ryder Cup arena is not one to be entered playing badly? Yet on this occasion there is not much to be done. “Everyone is worthy of representing their country because they made the team to start with,” said Strange.”Just because their form went bad because of an attack on our country, then I still think they should be part of the team For the first two days, you don’t have to play all 12. If somebody is not in good form, or they get flu, they don’t have to play until Sunday. You don’t go into battle with all 12 in perfect shape all the time, but you have to go into battle. I kind of like that.”How the captains deploy their players may be more interesting and have more relevance this year.

Strange added: “When has the Ryder Cup ever been played with 24 of the best players in the world at that time? Probably never.”You could say that is correct, because of all the non-American and non-Europeans at the top of the game. But if the question was whether the match has been played without the best available teams, then the answer must be not in the time that the match has reached the heights.Justin Rose will have to wait for his debut; Jose Maria Olazabal may have played his last match. Almost half the European team has been supplanted as the best 12 players the continent can provide as the likes of Lee Westwood and Phillip Price have struggled with their games. Jesper Parnevik, an obvious wild card pick a year ago, admits to battling a form of the yips this summer while injuries have hit Colin Montgomerie (his back complaint having recurred all year) and Padraig Harrington, who was struck down with neck and ankle problems at the USPGA.Harrington and Sergio Garcia are the only two players to have improved world rankings this season while Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn will also have important roles to play.