The announcement of the Alfred Dunhill Cup teams earlier this week, lent further emphasis to the huge shift in European professional golf over the last 12 years. For example, it is staggering to consider that Sweden had only one player, 79th-placed Anders Forsbrand, in the top-100 of the world rankings, when Ireland broke through to victory at St Andrews in 1988.
At that time, England were the defending champions and the Swedish trio of Magnus Persson, Forsbrand and Ove Sellberg were obliged to beat Singapore in a preliminary round so as to qualify for the tournament proper. Then they were thrashed 3-0 by Wales in the opening round, while Ireland were beating Canada en route to eventual victory.
Now, with only three players in the top-200 of the world rankings, Ireland have been forced to delve beyond that point, due to the unavailability of Darren Clarke. Mind you, Des Smyth actually qualified as the fourth-highest placed Irishman in the European Order of Merit, but the world ranking situation is nonetheless revealing.
As it happens, England's situation is even more remarkable. In the absence of Lee Westwood, currently fourth in the world, the highest ranked Englishman happens to be Jamie Spence, at 102nd. And Sweden? Well, they have no fewer than 10 players in the top-200 in the world. Indeed three who are not in their Dunhill Cup team - Jesper Parnevik (10th), Jarmo Sandelin (79th) and Pierre Fulke (99th) - are all ranked higher than Spence. Amazing.
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