If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the approach most people would take to the European Ryder Cup team.
Following last week’s 14.5-13.5 victory over the Americans at Celtic Manor, there is a school of thought that the European Tour should leave their selection policy completely untouched ahead of the next matches at Medinah Country Club in two years’ time.
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However, one man calling for change is winning captain Colin Montgomerie.
He believes no skipper should have to leave out a player of the calibre and ranked so highly in the world as Paul Casey.
By a strange quirk of fate Casey, the world number one seven, was omitted from his 12-man team for Celtic Manor as he didn’t qualify automatically and wasn’t picked as one of Montgomerie’s wildcards.
Had Europe lost in Wales then Montgomerie’s decision to select Edoardo Molinari, Luke Donald and an out-of-form Padraig Harrington over the Englishman would have been criticised.
Quite rightly Montgomerie would have expected Casey to qualify by rights either by the European Points List or the European Points List.
But that didn’t happen and Montgomerie is now advocating change, explaining: “I shouldn’t have had to leave out top 10 players in the world.
“I am not sure what the ideal scenario is. It could be 12 picks. It could be no picks and just go down the world rankings.
“We’ll have to talk about it in committee but I’m pretty positive the selection policy will have changed for the next Ryder Cup. And it could be something radical.”
What Montgomerie is hinting at seems highly unlikely to be adopted.
A hand-picked team would be a captain’s dream, but surely the point of the Ryder Cup is to create healthy rivalry first between prospective team members and then the opposition.
Merely allowing the captain to select a team of 12 players would lead to accusations of favouritism and take some of the competition away from events in the build-up to the matches.
Instead it seems more likely that if changes are made to the system then it will be down the route of that adopted by the United States in recent years.
After losing heavily at The K Club in 2006 the PGA of America granted 2008 captain Paul Azinger four wildcard picks instead of the customary two.
The change had the desired effect as the US won convincingly at Valhalla and this year’s captain Corey Pavin was also afforded the luxury of four picks.
Should sportsbook favourites Europe alter their selection process – and that is by no means certain to happen – then whoever succeeds Montgomerie as captain for the 2012 matches may see the only change being one more wildcard pick.
And you can rest assured that Casey will be doing everything in his power to ensure it is not him needing it.
