John Huggan: Watney putts himself in the frame for Ryder Cup

THIS particular slippery slope was first encountered by the Americans back in the mid-1980s when it rather quickly became clear that the re-constituted “European” Ryder Cup squad wasn’t going to be quite the same sort of pushover Great Britain & Ireland had been.

Suddenly, the biennial contest between old and new worlds was an exciting and highly competitive affair.

Indeed, since the Europeans recorded their maiden victory at The Belfry in 1985, they have won the famous old trophy twice as often as their increasingly hapless opponents, a state of affairs that has not gone unnoticed across the pond. So it is that the Americans – accompanied by an increasing desperation – have fiddled with the methods through which they identify the 12 nephews of Uncle Sam best able to win golf’s most eagerly-anticipated transatlantic encounter.

The number of captain’s picks, the timing of those selections, the length of the qualifying period, how points can be accumulated, the value of the major championships – all have been changed, modified or abandoned by a PGA of America seemingly unable to recognise that, for the last 25 years or so, the best European players have collectively been consistently superior to their US counterparts. So all the anguish and change wasn’t worth the trouble. Faced first with the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie and, more recently, a new wave of European stars, winning even an occasional Ryder Cup was always going to be difficult for our colonial cousins.

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon, this year’s US skipper, former USPGA champion Davis Love, will announce the names of the four men he will add to the eight automatic qualifiers – Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley and Zach Johnson (I know, not exactly the scariest line-up ever) – already in place.

It promises to be a tricky task for the 48-year-old veteran of six Ryder Cups. Maybe two weeks ago, it looked for all the world as if Love would have only one real decision to make. Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan seemed almost certain to fill three of the four vacancies, with either Dustin Johnson or Rickie Fowler completing the side. But things have suddenly become just a wee bit more complicated. Nick Watney emerged from a summer-long putting slump to win last week’s Barclays Championship at the fearsome Bethpage Black in New York and Brandt Snedeker – one of the best putters on the PGA Tour – was the runner-up. All of which has no doubt given Love pause for thought.

Should no other unexpected contenders emerge from this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, the word on the street is that Stricker, in American parlance, is a “lock” to secure the first pick. Which makes sense. As well as being one of the best five putters in the professional game, the 45-year-old Wisconsin native has long been the preferred foursomes and four-ball partner of one Eldrick Woods. Over the years, those particular positions have more often than not proved difficult to fill, so it is safe to assume that Stricker will fill his customary spot alongside Tiger at the end of this month.

None of the others will feel even close to safe, however. Not even the vastly experienced Furyk. In the wake of two memorable and high profile “chokes” at the US Open and the Bridgestone World Golf Championship this summer, it may be felt that the former US Open champion can no longer be relied upon over the closing holes of a vital match, when the pressure is most stifling.

Mahan is another who looks vulnerable. Since winning the Accenture World Match Play Championship and then, one week before the Masters, the Houston Open, this renowned ball-striker has recorded just one top-ten finish. Throw in the fact that Mahan’s stiff and awkward-looking chipping action makes Lee Westwood appear Seve-like around the greens and his place must be in jeopardy. That 15-handicap-level, decelerating-through-impact duff that all but lost the clinching match against Graeme McDowell two years ago remains a powerful memory, too. Poor chippers the world over surely shudder still at its very mention. Love will not have forgotten either.

Fowler has more to commend him, not least the fact that he performed with such distinction as a rookie back in 2010. Anyone who birdies the last three holes of his single to escape with an unlikely halved match is deserving of at least cursory consideration. On the other hand, Fowler’s flashy and unorthodox technique is not always the most reliable. His record this year is littered with scores in the high 70s and low 80s, including an 84 in the last round of the Memorial tournament in the company of Tiger. On the wrong day, he would lose heavily to anyone in the opposing squad.

The much-injured Johnson can also make a strong case for inclusion. Although he performed with something less than distinction at Celtic Manor and again at Royal Melbourne in last year’s Presidents Cup, the 28-year-old from South Carolina would bring much-needed firepower to the home side on a 7,658-yard Medinah course set up to suit the longer hitters.

As for Snedeker and Watney, much will depend on how each plays this week in Boston. Love has already publicly declared himself open to selecting “hot” (in-form) players, so their destinies would appear to be in their own hands.

All of which confusion and conjecture is in stark contrast to the stress-free time European captain Jose Maria Olazabal had at Gleneagles the other day. In selecting match play specialist Ian Poulter, and the Belgian bomber, Nicolas Colsaerts, the Spaniard surprised absolutely no one and attracted absolutely no criticism or second-guessing. I mean, who else was there?

Still, the European selection process is not without some dark little secrets. Why, for example, did the unqualified Poulter fail to turn up for the Johnnie Walker Championship? Had he made the effort to play and finished higher than 35th, he would have displaced the patently out-of-form Martin Kaymer from the list of automatic qualifiers. So, was Poulter told not to bother making the trip because the captain preferred even a struggling Kaymer to any of the other alternatives? Or does the flamboyant Englishman’s well-documented self-assurance extend to assuming he would be picked whatever happened?

Equally, it is worth noting that the year-long saga, one involving two lists – the first based on European Tour prize money, the other on world ranking points – managed to identify the leading 12 European Tour members on the aforementioned world ranking. Which makes perfect sense. The rankings are, one assumes, designed to identify those playing the best golf. Given that undeniable fact, why do we bother with all the tedious week-to-week calculations and speculation when the answer to the puzzle is so obvious and straightforward? Hey, just asking…