Wild cards reduced to two at behest of Jose Maria Olazabal

The Spaniard, who has reduced the wild cards back down to two, has also persuaded the tournament committee to reverse the two points lists used in the qualification system so that greater emphasis is placed on the European one rather than a world list for the 2012 match at Medinah.

Olazabal believes that by selecting five players from a European list first and then going to a world ranking points list for the next five - for Montgomerie it was the other way round and only four from the world list - the chances of the best players qualifying automatically will be enhanced.

"I am very pleased that the tournament committee has agreed to my request. The only reason that I asked for a change in the criteria is because I believe that it will give me the strongest team possible to defend the Ryder Cup," said the new European captain.

"I looked over the last few qualification processes, going back to 2004, and was satisfied that my proposal would give me the strongest team on paper. We are going to have a very strong team but I just felt that this would give the team the best chance to keep the Ryder Cup and that is what we all want. At the end of the day, it is the players who are the stars and it is the players who hit the shots and win the points to win the Ryder Cup. I would like to thank the committee for their support and I hope that this is the first step to us retaining the Ryder Cup in 2012."

Montgomerie received the same support when he asked for the wild cards to be increased to three following his appointment two years ago. At the same time, a decision was taken to reduce the number of qualifiers from the world points list from five to four but that has now been reversed.

"There was debate as to why, having only lost one match, do we feel we have to change? Of course, that was a question," said the Scot at the time those decisions were announced.

"But, at the same time, I've always felt that the more options you have in life, the better you are. I didn't want to have the scenario of the possibility of three of my so-called nucleus of the team (not qualifying automatically] and only having to pick two.

"So I have an option here, more of an option, to negate that situation, if and when it happens."

As things transpired, Montgomerie found himself in a position where even three picks wasn't enough as four leading European players - Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Justin Rose - failed to make it under their own steam.That left the Scot with a major headache and he came under fire after overlooking Casey, the world No 9 at the time, and Rose, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour last year. Instead, he handed his wild cards to Harrington, Donald and Italian Edoardo Molinari in the wake of his win in the final qualifying event, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Montgomerie claimed he'd had "an impossible decision to make" and predicted there would be changes for the next match in Chicago, although whether he was expecting Olazabal to reduce the number of wild cards again is debatable.

"I think you will find the selection process changes within itself and I certainly hope the next captain will not have the same problems and issues I had because it was very difficult," said the Scot after leading his side to a memorable win in Wales.

Qualifying for the 2012 team starts in September with the Omega European Masters at Crans-Sur-Sierre and runs through to the end of August next year, when the Johnnie Walker Championship in Perthshire will again be the final counting event.

Olazabal, though, could still face the same problem that Montgomerie did in the final week. The PGA Tour event that week does not count for cup qualifying, but Harrington, Casey, Donald and Rose all still opted for a FedEx Cup play-off tournament last year instead of playing at Gleneagles.