by Chris Jones

Created on: September 14, 2008

So here we are again the Ryder Cup jamboree is upon us and all the hype that surrounds it. The wildcards have been picked and the teams are set. Everyone is expressing their views through the media is this the end for Monty ? Should Darren Clare have been picked ? Will they need a reserve day now that JB Holmes has been picked ?

I will put it on record now that if the US don't win this time then I cannot see them winning for a very long time. The Americans are on home soil, will not have the distraction of the Tiger factor (more on that later), have a good team behind the scenes whilst Europe have arguably their weakest captain for quite some time in engendering a team ethos.

That all seems to point to a really close contest this time but will the US win ? Tough call but I think they will just fall short and it all comes down to one simple word that Europe encompass and the Americans (however hard they seem to try) just cannot seem to be able to replicate and that word is team.

It's not for the lack of trying on the part of the US PGA and their Ryder up committee. To their credit, they are constantly tweaking their qualifying rules to improve the team that represent them. The US captain Paul Azinger was given real flexibility with four wildcard picks this time and Zinger was looking for those in tip top form to prove to him that they deserved a spot on the team. That should have ensured a team on the top of their games but therein lies the rub.

Since the end of the automatic qualifying period for the US team, captain Azinger waited three weeks to name his four wildcards. He has gone on record saying that he had hoped that some would step up their game and put their hand up to be on the team. That wish was unfortunately not granted when in successive weeks, Padraig Harrington won the US PGA championship, Carl Petterson won the week after and Vijay Singh then took the next two so alas not one American rose to the challenge laid down.

That is one of the problems the US PGA is facing too many international winners of PGA tour events. Go back 10 or 15 years, how many non American golfers were there that were consistently in contention to win tournaments on a regular basis ? Just a handful at best I would think. Many of those on the European tour didn't venture over and there were less Asian and Australasian layers of a top standard to compete.

Of course, it has also been argued that having one player being so dominant in the sport has a detrimental effect on the rest

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