Points race is harsh but fair

Though the Ryder Cup selection process has dealt a few rough hands, it has been seen to work fairly efficiently over the years. Mind you, Eamonn Darcy would hardly go along with those sentiments after the bitter disappointment he endured on this weekend six years ago.

For the most part, however, the main objective is achieved in that the competitively strong survive, while inexperienced or simply inadequate aspirants are brushed aside in the battle for places.

Indeed Darcy had reason to respect the process in 1987, when he had a glorious Ryder Cup swan song at Muirfield Village, beating Ben Crenshaw on the 18th for a crucial point. It helped Europe to an historic victory, their first on American soil.

Darcy had pushed himself into Ryder Cup contention by winning the Belgian Open at Royal Waterloo on June 20th. For 10 weeks, he clung onto the ninth and last qualifying position until the team was finalised after the German Open on August 30th, when he was tied 22nd behind Mark McNulty.

Ironically, the Zimbabwean was again victorious in 1991 when the fluidity of the situation was remarkably similar to this weekend. Then, too, Olazabal was attempting to play his way into an automatic place in the side while Faldo's only chance was a wild card.

In the points table prior to the event, it was also intriguing to note the presence of Miguel-Angel Martin, albeit in a relatively modest 17th position. Ballesteros, the current skipper, was a runaway leader, and Mark James, who went on to gain one of the three wild cards, wasn't even in the top 20.

The Ryder Cup points table prior to the 1991 German Open was: 1 Seve Ballesteros 333,069 pts; 2 Colin Montgomerie 275,015; 3 Steven Richardson 265,383; 4 Ian Woosnam 246,851; 5 Bernhard Langer 186,526; 6 David Feherty 184,375; 7 Eamonn Darcy 182,146; 8 David Gilford 177,883; 9 JoseMaria Olazabal 174,533; 10 Sam Torrance 164,188; 11 Per-Ulrik Johansson 150,567; 12 Paul Broadhurst 127,328; 13 Anders Forsbrand 121,230; 14 Nick Faldo 119,865; 15 Mike McLean 118,416. Other position - 17 Miguel-Angel Martin 104,264.

It has been well documented how Darcy, who was then English-based, opted out of the German Open so as to have a holiday in Ireland with his two sons. Yet the fact that McNulty, a non-European, captured the title, appeared to have done him a favour.

The Irishman was ultimately undone, however, by the fact that Broadhurst finished runner-up and Torrance was third. In fact, Broadhurst, Torrance and David Gilford all went ahead of Darcy, while James scrambled through to the final 36 holes on 143, one stroke inside the cut. He then produced closing rounds of 67 and 70 for a share of 12th place.

It is also interesting to recall that Jesper Parnevik, a front-runner for a wild card this time around, was tied 22nd on that occasion, while Gilford did enough for survival by picking up 4,320 points in a share of 30th place. With a total of 182,203 points, he claimed the final, ninth position ahead of Darcy who remained on 182,146.

The team was: Ballesteros, Montgomerie, Richardson, Woosnam, Langer, Feherty, Gilford, Olazabal, Torrance, Broadhurst, Faldo and Mark James. Olazabal, Faldo and James failed to make the top nine and were given wild cards.

Meanwhile, the strength of the process was also to be seen in the battle for places back in 1989. That was when Denis Durnian, who was 39 in June of that year, seemed certain to achieve the crowning glory of a career as a club professional by making the Ryder Cup team, without a European Tour victory.

Twice runner-up - in the Jersey Open and the Epson Grand Prix - and only four times out of the top-12, Durnian had accumulated 90,000 points by the end of May. Indeed, after losing to Ballesteros in the final of the Epson matchplay event, the celebrated Spaniard told him: "You'll win very soon and you will be on the Ryder Cup team this year and I will be on your side then."

But Durnian fell victim to the pressure on a grand scale, missing five cuts in a row. And in the last two qualifying events, he was 46th and 69th. He had gone close, but not close enough. One suspects that there will be similarly crushed spirits for a few other contenders in Munich tomorrow afternoon.